Culture in Education?

Uppermost in my mind this week are questions of culture in art and design education. Having had conversations with faculty from both the design and the visual arts departments I manage there seems to be almost a complete consensus that this is lacking in contemporary arts education. It is a similar proposition when researching what other academics are saying on this topic...

Sure, we teach history and contextual subjects in design and cultural productions in the visual arts programs but this does tend to be specific and less broad than it might be if one was intending to foster the "curiosity" and excitment about IDEAS that I think most lecturers would like.

It seems that there is a growing lack in this area. But how to stem this if budgets are cut and the overall climate is not conducive to this type of content in curriculum?