A new book by Dr Mike Bindon

Students don’t need persuading to choose the arts. They need permission.

Unlocking the Arts is a practical guide to increasing arts participation in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme. It names twelve barriers that quietly steer students away from the arts, and gives teachers, counsellors and leaders the strategies and tools to remove them.

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DP Dance
DP Film
DP Music
DP Theatre
DP Visual arts

The problem

Same programme. Same rules. Wildly different outcomes.

In the IB Diploma Programme (DP), the arts are the only subject group students may opt out of. Timetables, university advice, counselling conversations, parental expectations and school culture can all make the arts quietly harder to choose.

The result is visible in this year’s numbers. Across both 2025 exam sessions, fewer than four in every hundred DP subject entries were in dance, film, music, theatre or visual arts.

It does not have to be this way. In the schools studied for this book, all under the same IB rules, arts participation ranged from less than a quarter of students to more than three quarters. The difference was in the choices schools made.

The arts in the IB Diploma Programme, 2025

International Baccalaureate (IB) May and November sessions combined

100.0%

of DP subject entries were in the arts

That is roughly 1 in every 27.

Arts entries: 32,517
All DP entries: 862,225

Each square is 1% of all IB Diploma Programme entries.

View the figures as a table

Subject group	May	Nov	Share
Individuals and societies	177,341	22,969	23.2%
Language and literature	150,211	18,536	19.6%
Sciences	146,799	21,501	19.5%
Mathematics	118,819	17,331	15.8%
Language acquisition	114,012	16,801	15.2%
The arts	28,804	3,713	3.8%
Interdisciplinary	22,846	2,542	2.9%

Source: IB Final Statistical Bulletins, May and November 2025. Subject entries by all students in each session; a student taking two arts subjects counts twice. The arts total includes 15 literary arts (pilot) entries in November.

Unlocking the arts

Every barrier is a lock. Every strategy is a key.

Read together, twelve barriers can feel like a closed door. Taken one at a time, they are a list of things schools have already changed, and the research behind this book found thirty-six ways they did it.

Explore the barriers

The decision ecosystem

Sound familiar?

Twelve barriers quietly steer students away from the arts. They rarely announce themselves, and they rarely act alone. They sound like this.

“Film clashes with Physics, so it’s one or the other.”Timetable structure “I’ve never done theatre, so I wouldn’t know where to start.”Pre-DP arts provision “Only four people signed up, so dance isn’t running next year.”Scheduling and viability “You’re in the musical anyway, so you don’t need Music as a subject.”CAS and co-curricular confusion “It’s lovely, but it isn’t a serious subject.”Community perception of value “My parents say universities won’t count it.”Parental expectation and pressure

“Everyone has to drop something. Most people drop the art.”IB optionality clause “You need real talent to take it, but it isn’t a proper academic subject anyway.”Challenge paradox “Universities don’t take arts subjects seriously.”Perceived university admissions bias “If you want medicine, you need two sciences.”Two-science default “What job are you going to get with that?”Career instability perception “The clever ones all take Physics HL.”STEM subject prestige

“The clever ones all take Physics HL.”STEM subject prestige “What job are you going to get with that?”Career instability perception “If you want medicine, you need two sciences.”Two-science default “Universities don’t take arts subjects seriously.”Perceived university admissions bias “My parents say universities won’t count it.”Parental expectation and pressure “It’s lovely, but it isn’t a serious subject.”Community perception of value “You’re in the musical anyway, so you don’t need Music as a subject.”CAS and co-curricular confusion “Only four people signed up, so dance isn’t running next year.”Scheduling and viability “I’ve never done theatre, so I wouldn’t know where to start.”Pre-DP arts provision “Film clashes with Physics, so it’s one or the other.”Timetable structure “You need real talent to take it, but it isn’t a proper academic subject anyway.”Challenge paradox “Everyone has to drop something. Most people drop the art.”IB optionality clause

How locked are the arts in your school?

Tap the ones you hear and see where to start. It takes two minutes.

What has been shaped by choices made over time can also be reshaped through choices made intentionally.

Unlocking the Arts, Chapter 1

About the author

Dr Mike Bindon

An international arts education specialist, filmmaker and artist, Mike spent eleven years leading the global development of the IB’s DP arts courses. His doctoral research at the University of Bath, on which this book draws, was awarded the Jeff Thompson Prize.

More about Mike

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