A campaign to save three undergraduate craft courses at Edinburgh College of Art has gathered around 17,000 signatures, as anger grows over the University of Edinburgh's plan to close the degrees. The courses facing closure are Performance Costume, Jewellery and Silversmithing, and Textiles, which will stop admitting new students in 2027 and be taught out over the following four years.

The campaign is led by Craft Scotland, the national development agency for craft, whose director Irene Kernan has described the decision as bewildering given the courses' quality and international draw. Graduates of the programmes have gone on to work on major screen productions including Outlander, The Crown, Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon and Barbie, as well as stage work for the Royal Shakespeare Company, English National Ballet and Scottish Opera. A petition signatory who graduated in performance costume in 2010 said the training underpinned sixteen years of work in film and high-end television.

The dispute has now reached the Scottish Parliament. MSP Q Manivannan, who represents Edinburgh and Lothians East, has convened an emergency public meeting at Summerhall on November 1, bringing together students, staff, politicians, councillors and arts sector representatives. Critics argue the closures will erode Scotland's arts education and damage the wider economy for decades, at a moment when screen production in Scotland is expanding.

The economic case for the courses has been made with fresh figures. Screen Scotland reported the sector had grown 15 per cent to £718 million between 2021 and 2023 and is on course to reach £1 billion by 2030–31, while a Design Council report published in September 2026 put the UK design sector's contribution at £136.7 billion in 2023. Campaigners also argue the hands-on skills taught on the courses are resistant to automation, noting a growing appetite for handmade work over machine-generated imagery. The row is unfolding alongside a costume exhibition at Dovecot Studios celebrating sixty years of the costumier Cosprop, whose famous wet-shirt costume from the BBC's Pride and Prejudice adaptation is on display nearby.