Supporting Creative Industries with Innovative University Study Programmes

Creative industries are the driving force behind today's economy and its continuing growth. The term creative industries was coined by Lord Smith of Finsbury, who as British Secretary of Culture introduced a model termed the creative economy. The European Union has taken the import of this economic model to heart and is putting great effort towards promoting it in economic, political and cultural spheres across Europe. The Slovak Republic has been a fully-fledged member of the EU since 2004. Since rejecting the socialist centrally-planned economic system in 1989 and embarking down the path towards a market economy, post-communist Slovakia has endeavoured to build up a developed and viable economy rooted in long-term sustainable development. In an attempt to respond to the growth of creative industries and the creative economy in Slovakia, our paper proposes a series of innovative study programmes which we plan to implement at the Faculty of Humanities Matej Bel University (UMB) in Banská Bystrica in the near future.