Dutch art academies or schools of the arts are institutions for upper secondary and higher professional education (for example, the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, the HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, and the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam). They offer programmes in architecture, visual arts, media, film, photography, heritage, design, music, dance, and theatre, to train students for a profession as a professional artist, arts educator, or entrepreneur in the arts.
Programs are mainly offered at the bachelor’s level, though the number of master’s programmes has increased in recent years. Several academies also have research professorships that stimulate research within the various artistic disciplines. There are also professorships specifically focused on arts education at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen and the Amsterdam University of the Arts.
In order to improve the alignment between arts education and the labour market in the cultural and creative sector, the Dutch Association of Universities of Applied Sciences developed a sector plan in 2011, featuring various performance-based indicators. This plan led to tightened admission requirements and the restructuring of numerous programs in order to enhance the efficiency and quality of arts education in higher education. An additional goal was to improve facilities for young and top-level talent. Universities also offer theoretical and research-oriented programmes related to the arts at bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels. Technical universities offer programmes in industrial design and architecture (such as Eindhoven University of Technology).
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