Historically, Fine Arts Academies and Academies of Music in Italy have been considered school institutions, and as such placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Education (MPI). In the 1990s, responsibility for the non-university sector of higher arts and cultural education was shared between MPI (institutions for fine and applied arts, dance, drama and music) and the Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Activities – MIBAC. During that decade, Academies and Conservatoires lobbied intensively to be granted university status for two main reasons: a) equivalent institutions in other EU member states already enjoyed university status, which meant that foreign professionals in the artistic sector were formally recognised with higher qualifications than Italian ones, despite having attained the same degree of higher education; b) over time, universities had become “competitors” to Academies and Conservatoires, having established their own courses in the arts and music (e.g. DAMS – Arts, Music and Performing Arts Disciplines).
The long-awaited reform of higher education in the artistic sector (drama, dance and music) finally started to take place in 1999, when the then Ministry for University and Scientific-Technological Research (MURST) issued Law 508/99. In 2001, MPI and MURST were merged into the new Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR). A further step in the reform of higher arts education was taken in December 2012, when AFAM courses were at last awarded university status (Financial Stability Law 2012).
In January 2020, after further changes, during Giuseppe Conte’s second term of office as head of government, the Ministry of Education, University and Research was split into two departments by a decree law, one the Ministry of Education and the other the Ministry of Universities and Research – also comprising a General Direction for Higher Education in the Arts, Music, and Dance – which is now the main institution responsible for artistic and cultural education, as all the university courses in the culture area fall under its scope.
The other administrative institution with wide responsibility in artistic and cultural education is the present Ministry of Culture, which performs a wide and articulated activity in the field of education at several levels, through its General Direction for Education, Research and Cultural Institutions, which holds and carries out functions and tasks relating to coordination, design and assessment of education, training and research programmes in the area under the responsibility of the Ministry. Starting from 2015, the General Direction has been drafting – in collaboration with the High Council for Cultural and Natural Heritage – an annual report, the National Plan for Cultural Heritage Education. The aim of the Plan, whose layout follows the guidelines of Law 107 enacted in July 2015 called the “Good School” law (see chapter 5.2) is to promote knowledge of heritage. The Plan is implemented also through specific agreements with the Regions, local authorities, universities and not-for-profit associations working in the areas of competence of the Ministry. The Direction follows the implementation, control and assessment of related activities and actions, also through the work of the Centre for Educational Services (SED) which has been operative since 1998.
The Fondazione Scuola dei beni e delle attività culturali (Foundation School of Cultural Heritage and Activities), founded in 2014, and having as partner the Ministry of Culture, falls also in the area covered here. It is an international institution dedicated to training, research and higher education. It carries out activities of lifelong learning and retraining for cultural heritage professionals.
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