The Martin Prosperity Institute has published the 2015 Global Creativity Index (GCI) report which explores the role of cities within global capitalism, and is used to measure economic growth and sustainable prosperity through talent technology and tolerance. It uses these measures to rank 139 nations worldwide on creativity and prosperity.
This year, Australia has ranked highest, followed by the US, New Zealand and then Canada. Global creativity, according to the GCI, is closely connected to economic development, competitiveness and prosperity. The report suggests that nations ranking high on the Index have ‘higher levels of productivity (measured as economic output per person), competitiveness, entrepreneurship, and overall human development’. They also link creativity to urbanisation and higher levels of equality, claiming that the US and UK, for example, combine high levels of creative competitiveness with much higher levels of inequality (known as the low road path).
What is particularly interesting about this Index is the education is marked as a key factor in economic development. The report suggests the growth of capitalism uses knowledge, innovation and talent. They see creativity as an ‘infinitely renewable resource that can be continually replenished and deepened’, and claim that innovation and economic progress are tied to tolerance and the openness to attract and mobilise global talent. In short, embracing diversity from the international workforce, is crucial for economic development.
Education, it proposes, has long been understood by economists as a driver to economic growth and development, and as such the Index uses levels of tertiary education within populations to measure talent.
This report is yet another indicator that the UK’s war on international students (or global talent) as well as the introduction of policies which have put strain on the HE system and students, are two damaging trajectories to the well-being of the UK economy