Higher arts education (and higher education in general) in Flanders has a bachelor-master structure. Bachelor (both professional and academic) and master courses are available in two different fields of study: ‘Music and Performing Arts’ and ‘Audiovisual and Visual Art’ (which also includes courses in product design).[1] These courses are held at Schools of Arts, which form separate (and largely autonomous) structures within university colleges.[2] Schools of Arts collaborate with universities for PhD-programmes and research in the Arts.[3]
Beside the Schools of Arts, there are five Higher Institutions for Fine Arts, which offer specialised (mostly postgraduate) courses in the arts. These are A.PASS (performing arts and scenography), HISK (visual arts), International Opera Academy (opera), Orpheus Instituut (music), and P.A.R.T.S. (contemporary dance).
Other study programmes for higher cultural education include (interior) architecture, urban planning, conservation and restoration studies, archival studies, product development, digital arts and entertainment, and social-agogic work[4]. These are offered as bachelor, master, or graduate[5] courses at university colleges and universities. These institutions also offer study programmes in the humanities (archaeology, art history, musicology, literary studies, etc.) and teacher training courses in the arts and humanities. Obtaining a degree in the latter is a prerequisite for teaching arts or humanities courses in compulsory education (see 5.2) and part-time education in the arts (see 5.4).[6]
[1] The number of enrolled students in each field of study and at each institution for higher education can be consulted online. Since 2020, these statistics also include the number of diplomas awarded. For a discussion of the relation between higher arts education and the professional arts sector, see Kunstenpunt, ed. 2019. Landschapstekening Kunsten: Ontwikkelingsperspectieven voor de kunsten anno 2019. Brussel: Kunstenpunt, 155-156.
[2] Beside their Schools of Arts, these university colleges also organise non-artistic study programmes. The sole exception is LUCA School of Arts, which is a university college that comprises different Schools of Arts and therefore only offers arts education.
[3] It should be noted that there are no study programmes specialised in circus in Dutch-speaking higher education.
[4] Professionals in socio-cultural and youth work often follow courses in social-agogical work.
[5] Graduate courses (‘graduaatsopleidingen’) have been introduced in 2019 as a new category of higher education in Flanders (replacing the older ‘HBO5’ training programmes). These offer more hands-on training than bachelor courses.
[6] Lecturing in higher (arts) education requires a bachelor’s, master’s, or PhD degree (depending on the type of job), but not necessarily a degree of teacher. Many job offers at School of Arts, however, stipulate a teacher training qualification.
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