Planned 2013 launch for new arts university

Academy of Fine Arts, Sibelius Academy, and Theatre Academy to merge

Päivi Kärkkäinen

print this

A formal proposal for a merger of the Academy of Fine Arts, the Sibelius Academy, and the Theatre Academy Helsinki is expected in January.
      The proposal, which has only a few details missing, calls for the launch of a new university of fine arts, music, and the performing arts in 2013.
      The new institution would comprise three independent academies, whose present familiar names would remain unchanged.
     
The merger would give students better opportunities to build individual study paths, allowing them to choose from among courses from three schools, instead of just one.
      A working group set up by Minister of Education Henna Virkkunen (Nat. Coalition Party) last year has been headed by Päivi Kärkkäinen, the director-general of the Finnish National Opera. Other universities teaching the arts have also been represented, and one student was also taking part.
      The task force was given the mandate to ascertain how Finland might get a stronger university of the arts than it has had up to now
     
There have been numerous previous attempts to set up a university for the arts.
      Now the possibilities of success are seen to be better than before, as the aim of policy in higher education is to have stronger institutions of at least 3,000 students.
      Previous options have also included the University of Art and Design, but that became part of the new Aalto University at the beginning of this year, even though there was resistance, especially from the cinema department.
     
Kärkkäinen’s working group is not proposing breaking up the Aalto University, but it takes the view that there should be more cooperation in the form of common educational programmes, for instance.
      Paula Tuovinen, director of the Theatre Academy has long felt that her school is “really terribly small to be an autonomous university”.
      “There are big changes going on in the entire field of higher education. The need for skills is growing all the time on the economic side, for instance, and in IT and copyright matters”, Tuovinen points out.
      “Competition between universities is also intensifying. A joint university of the arts could secure the future of different fields of the arts”, Tuovinen says.
     
MP Outi Alanko-Kahiluoto (Green), the deputy chair of the board of the Academy of Fine Arts sets a number of conditions for reform.
      “The merger needs to be based on the desire of the universities themselves, and not to coercion from the state. Its starting point needs to be content-based and not just administrative”, Alanko-Kahiluoto says.
      She adds that she remains traumatised by the preparations of the Aalto University and the new university legislation, where she says personnel and students were hardly listened to at all.
      Alanko-Kahiluoto also warns against trusting promises of economic benefits that might stem from the merger in a situation in which billions of euros in cuts in public funding are looming.
     


Links:
  Finnish Academy of Fine Arts
  Sibelius Academy
  Theatre Academy Helsinki
  Aalto University

Helsingin Sanomat