In June 2017, the European Commission's draft "Revised Modernization Agenda for Higher Education" in Brussels was presented by the Head of Sector Higher Education (HE), Sarah Lynch, who provided an extensive insight into the state of work on the renewed agenda for HE in Europe addressing topics such as employability, social impact, the role of the HE institutions as driving forces for innovation and the efficiency of the current system. The occasion provided a great opportunity for AEC CEO to discuss with the Commission how these issues are understood from the perspective of arts HE institutions in general and higher music education institutions in particular.
Concerning the dialogue with partner organisatons, contacts were re-established still before the summer break with EURASHE, the European association of institutions in higher education, as AEC CEO met with EURASHE President Stéphane Lauwick and discussed future potential collaborations. Contacts with Opera Europa have been strengthened: both Opera Europa’s and AEC’s projects, which included mutual reference to the other organization, have been selected for Creative Europe funding, and such funding will facilitate the creation of new synergies. Following an initial brainstorming about potential areas of collaboration – which include the fields of digital learning methods promotion and audience engagement – concrete steps are now being taken towards a long-term cooperation. Finally, AEC President and CEO recently attended the NeuNow Conference organized by ELIA, the European league of institutes of the arts as well as the farewell event for the executive director and founder of ELIA, Carla Delfos.
Since early September, AEC representatives have already actively engaged in international conferences:
- AEC Vice-President Georg Schulz presented his considerations on Lessons Learned from Developing Performance Indicators for Higher Music Education within the U-Multirank system at the 39th Annual Forum of EAIR, the European Higher Education Society in Porto. During the lively discussion, different stakeholders in the audience with no artistic background were interested in the way the AEC U-Multirank Working Group (WG) had approached the difficult challenge to find indicators for Higher Music Education Institutions. Especially research-based artistic output and the WG’s understanding of knowledge transfer have been discussed. The paper and slides of the presentation are available upon request.
- AEC CEO presented AEC and participated in the seminar "A new Europe for a new world – art school in the era of globalisation" organised by ANdEA, the national association of higher arts institutions in France (Association nationale des écoles supérieures d’art) in Strasbourg. The event aimed at sharing experiences undertaken by French Art Schools with other similar institutions outside the country in order to promote international networks.
