Art students should learn how to draw

Many students entering art school possess inadequate drawing skills and a new A level and GCSE in the subject is needed to address the problem, according to an Oxford University professor of drawing.

Stephen Farthing, Ruskin Master of Drawing at Oxford's Ruskin School, said the courses would explore drawing as a way of measuring, illustrating, mapping, and self-expression.

Professor Farthing said: "By implementing such a change we would lift ourselves out of the present trap where we are doing the equivalent of admitting undergraduates to study physics without them having A-level mathematics."