The Conference of Deans of the Faculties of Fine Arts has described the draft Law on Artistic Education approved by the Council of Ministers on April 11 as "contempt and disregard for the Spanish university system". The bill was presented by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and has the objective of regulating, for the first time in more than 30 years, the studies of music, dance, dramatic art, conservation and restoration of cultural assets, plastic arts, design and audiovisual arts. It obtained the unfavorable vote of the Council of Universities, a body chaired by Minister Joan Subirats, and in which the rectors of the universities are.
The crux of the matter is that the regulatory text homologates higher artistic education to the European Higher Education Area, equating it to university studies. The bill brings them closer but does not integrate them as university studies.
In a joint communication, the deans of Fine Arts consider that the new regulations circumvent the processes of accreditation and verification of degrees, the requirements for teachers and the passage of the university entrance exam by students.
These statements are in line with those issued by the Conference of University Rectors (Crue) last week.
In the note, the president of the Conference of Deans of this specialty, Alfonso Ruiz, maintains that "once carefully reviewed the approved text, we have verified that no improvements have been introduced nor have any of the proposals presented by our institution been heard ".
He adds that "the overwhelming and unfavorable report" issued on March 17 by the Council of Universities has been ignored: "We find it intolerable how the opposition of this fundamental body has been resolved to guarantee the quality of the system, eliminating from the new wording of the project the hearing of the Council of Universities both in the access to certain degree studies in Higher Artistic Education in exceptional circumstances, as in the regulatory development of the study plans and in the initial training requirements".
In this sense, he has stressed that they add to the "outrage" that "this new nonsense" has raised in the Crue, for which he has supported his position "point by point" in addition to insisting that the bill "does not establish for the qualifications that it regulates, the same guarantees that are required for university degrees".
The rectors issued a statement last week in which they recalled that universities must go through processes of accreditation and verification of degrees and centers established by the National Agency for the Evaluation of Accreditation Quality (Aneca) and regional agencies (such as the AQU in Catalunya) that determine their training and improvement actions.
Likewise, the Crue pointed out that university studies are mainly taught by doctoral professors and researchers "who have to endorse their training capacity every five years, and their research capacity every six years, in addition to being accredited by Aneca or the equivalent regional agencies", and that "students who access university studies have a baccalaureate and must pass a university entrance exam".
They also explained that "the study plans taught at universities are prepared following verification procedures that guarantee their fit into the European Higher Education Area", which are reviewed by quality agencies through accreditation renewal processes.
In this way, they concluded, "to the extent that degrees that are attributed a university character for all purposes are regulated, Crue maintains that it is not acceptable that completely different requirements be established between universities and non-university centers." university students who teach higher artistic education".
On the other hand, the Faculties of Fine Arts consider that this new law "violates the independence of the Spanish university system also included in the Spanish Constitution", since, in their opinion, what was approved "would be contrary to the right of university autonomy, by creating parallel an educational system equivalent to all effects to the university".
"Our concerns and red lines have a single purpose, to safeguard the quality system of the University and always seek a dialogue and real consensus that never existed", asserted Alfonso Ruiz, who has advanced that "they will exhaust all the avenues available to them scope to amend the serious problems that this law will pose to the entire university system, not just exclusive to Fine Arts".
