Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.08.2011, Blaðsíða 21

Reykjavík Grapevine - 26.08.2011, Blaðsíða 21
21 The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 13 — 2011 Iceland Academy of the Arts (Lis- taháskóli Íslands) was founded in 1999 and it’s the only university in Iceland dedicated to the arts. We called up Rector Hjálmar H. Rag- narsson and asked him to tell us more about the university, its pro- grammes and its future plans. First of all, what is the Iceland Academy of the Arts? What’s being taught there? The Iceland Academy of the Arts is a university level institution providing education in the arts—design and ar- chitecture, fine arts, music, theatre and dance, and art education. The pro- grammes are mostly on the bachelor’s level, but there are also master’s pro- grammes in some fields. We are the only institution of this kind in Iceland, so you could say we are a national school of arts. We emphasise contemporary art and art creation. We are very connected to the contempo- rary art scene and I’d say we are a ma- jor force in Icelandic artistic life, putting on all kinds of exhibitions, concerts, and performances over the year. What about film and photography? Why doesn’t the school have these departments? The only major art that we don’t have is film. In 2004, and again in 2008, we pro- posed a film programme, but we were not able to get financial support from the State. The government decided instead to support The Icelandic Film School, which is not at the university level. People are very divided on the is- sue. Still, we are hoping to get the pro- gramme started and I’m optimistic that we will be able to do it in next few years. We have also proposed a plan for a photography programme in the De- partment of Design. In 2008 after the crash, all the plans were put aside. We just had to protect what we had. For now we have a photography lab and we have teachers coming and a special tutor. But there’s a lot of interest and a great need for such a programme, which doesn’t exist in Iceland. It’s part of our long-term plan. What kind of person attends the school? We get applications from all over the world and accept about one out of five who apply, though in some fields it is higher. Students send in an application with a portfolio of work showing their independent artistic character. Stu- dents have to fulfil standard require- ments, like passing the stúdentspróf [matriculation exam] and they must convince us that they are very passion- ate about what they are doing, that they are inventive and courageous. We choose students from a large pool and I don’t hesitate to say that our students are some of the most gifted in Iceland. There is no stereotypical stu- dent, but they are all passionate about creating something new. Today there are about 460 students enrolled. The Academy has been trying to build a new facility for some years now. Where do those plans stand? Is there enough space for the stu- dents? In the fall of 2008 we had proposed plans for an Academy at Laugavegur, but since the collapse nothing has happened. The State is not ready to support [the construction] financially, and the Reykjavík City Council has not approved the plan for it. Everything is frozen. There are politics involved and opinions are divided about whether it should be at the proposed location. However, the Board of the Academy adamant that it should be downtown. An Academy should be a major force in city life and the students also benefit from being part of city life, rather than being isolated from it. It’s part of art life to connect to the city. Now our campus is in three areas around town so students have to travel between facilities, which is not ideal. Currently the Academy is financed mostly by the State and a small part by tuition [350.000 ISK/year]. We have good relations with the government and have some short-term plans for improving the situation and long term plans for building a new facility. Education in the arts is extremely important in Iceland and it has wider importance as well. It’s a major force in the creative industries and Iceland’s identity is very connected to how we form our ideas in the different fields of art. Is it being threatened by cutbacks? There have been serious cutbacks, but not more than at the other universities. When the collapse happened we were next in line to start new programmes like photography and film, but those plans are on hold for the time being. Now our major task is the develop mas- ter’s programmes in a greater number of fields. The Iceland Academy of the Arts The only place to get an a formal arts education in Iceland Back To School | Academy of the Arts Opinion | Magnús Sveinn Helgason One of the more common arguments heard in de- bates on higher education in Iceland, especially when it comes to university funding, is that there are way too many univer- sities in Iceland. Why should Icelan- dic taxpayers fund seven different universities? It makes no sense! At first glance, the statistics appear to support this. According to figures from the US Department of Education, the US had some 4.474 institutions of high- er education in 2009; that is, various types of colleges and universities. This means there is one institution of higher education for every 67.000 inhabitants. With seven such institutions, Iceland has one for every 46.000 inhabitants. Simple arithmetic proves that Iceland has around two to three universities too many. THE CENTRAL LOGIC So, which universities or colleges are re- dundant? Most people seem to think Bi- fröst University, followed by the Univer- sity of Akureyri. Primarily because both are small and their curriculum is not that different from the University of Iceland and Reykjavík University. Surely there would be no harm in eliminating these two: We could just as well graduate their students from the two large universities in Reykjavík? And we would surely save money in the process: We could achieve econo- mies of scale and scope in the large Reykjavík universities, where it would be possible to utilise all the fixed costs of university education better. More students per professor and classroom means we lower the production cost of students with university degrees. Because that is a central logic of the whole “Iceland has too many uni- versities” argument. It is not that there are some really bad universities that we have no use for—nobody has re- ally made the argument that Bifröst or the University of Akureyri are sub-par educational institution and need to be eliminated because they are not deliver- ing their students good education. Nor has anyone argued that the Universities of Iceland and Reykjavík would provide these students with better education. The argument is always that by con- centrating all the education funding, and all the students, into larger units we would somehow automatically be mak- ing the most of our investment in higher education. It is all about the presumed efficiency of larger institutes of higher education. AMBITIOUS PLANS... FOR WHO? As if higher education was like any other modern consumer industry, where small production units imply inefficiency, and the goal is simply to produce more at lower costs. BA degrees as plastic toys for Happy Meals. If that were the case it would make perfect sense to elimi- nate small production units in favour of larger, and presumably more efficient, institutions. But there is a second, related, argu- ment for eliminating the small universi- ties. By eliminating the small universi- ties, and concentrate all our energies on the University of Iceland where money could be spent on research, we could perhaps get closer to the unrealistic goal of making it one of the “top 100 universities in the world.” But this too, I argue, overlooks the nature of higher education. I do not doubt we could save money by packing all university students in Ice- land into the University of Iceland. And I do not doubt we can use those savings to finance research, which could get the U of I closer to its ambitious goal. But in whose interest would these changes be? Perhaps some of the professors and a handful of more advanced students who would get experience as research assistants and university administrators and politicians who could congratulate themselves on achieving bureaucratic goals. But the great majority of the students would not benefit at all. Why? Well, it is because the goal of higher education is, well, education. The goal of Icelandic University policy should not be to have a one of the “top 100 uni- versities in the world,” but to provide quality university education to people. And people are different and they have different needs. Perhaps espe- cially when it comes to education. While it suits many students just fine to get their education in large universities in downtown Reykjavík, this does not fit the needs of others. People can easily get lost in the hustle and bustle of the U of I and R U, where students and faculty are constantly coming and going and at times the air reminds you more of a air- port terminal than a campus. AN ISOLATED VILLAGE UTOPIA The smaller universities can offer stu- dents an intimacy these large institutions cannot. And this intimacy is invaluable to many students. Take the University of Bifröst, which is really its own small village, populated by students and uni- versity staff, situated in the Norðurá Val- ley in western Iceland, surrounded by picturesque lava fields overgrown by the kind of struggling vegetation Icelanders like to call “forest,” and far away from the distractions of city life. Students don’t need to commute to school, they are in constant and close contact with each other and the staff, and the sur- roundings are perfect for raising kids. In fact, the place reminds you more of the kind garden city imagined by late 19th century Utopian social reformers than a campus. Which makes sense, be- cause it was originally the “Cooperative College,” created by the Icelandic coop- erative movement, which was one of the most successful cooperative movements in Europe. That is, until it succumbed to the demands of mass consumer society and the logic of capital. But even if the cooperative movement has died some of its spirit lives in this small isolated cam- pus village. Now, by the logic of arithmetic this university is obviously redundant. But by any other logic it is invaluable to the flora of Icelandic higher education. What’s more, the “too many small universities” arithmetic argument takes our attention away from the real prob- lem: Iceland spends far too little on higher education. See, the problem is not that the Icelandic university system is too expensive because it has too many small units. If that were the case it would make some sense to eliminate univer- sities to save money. But according to figures from the OECD, Iceland spends less than almost all other developed countries on higher education, just 1,2% of GDP while the OECD average is 2%. Iceland is the only OECD country that spends less per student in university than it spends per pupil in elementary schools. More disturbingly, Iceland is falling behind other countries when it comes to young people who graduate with university degrees: Only 33% of people 24–34 years old finish college. This proportion is around or over 40% in the other Nordic countries. Who can honestly think we can solve this by cutting costs, eliminating choices and providing more standardised mass- produced BAs in the large universities? The Case Against ‘The One Big University Theory Of Academic Excellence’ rable education elsewhere, can be admitted to university (unless their circumstances are deemed ‘special’, say they have field experience). Most Icelandic students enter University at 20–24 years of age, and graduate in four to five years. In 2010 there were 12.699 students seeking a BA degree, 4.352 students seeking a MA degree and 482 students seeking PhDs at Ice- landic Universities. In addition, there were 1.650 students seeking diplomas or candidatus degrees. The social sci- ences, business and law are the most popular subjects. There are currently seven full uni- versities in Iceland. The University of Iceland, the oldest and largest uni- versity, founded in 1911, is the only university with a full range of BA and MA degrees in academic disciplines. Reykjavík University, a private univer- sity, founded in 1998 offers degrees in law, business, computer science, engi- neering as well as sports science. To- gether the Universities of Iceland and Reykjavík, both of which are located in Reykjavík—at opposite sides of the downtown bog to be precise—account for over 80% of all university students in Iceland. In addition to these two there are several smaller universities. The Ice- landic Academy of the Arts has de- partments of Design and architecture, fine arts, music and theatre and offers various BA degrees as well as MA de- grees in art education, composition and theatre. The University of Akurey- ri, situated in Akureyri, the largest town and the “capital” of Northern Iceland offers various BA and MA de- grees in the humanities and social sci- ences, health sciences, business and natural resource sciences. A second small university located outside Reykjavik, Bifröst University, offers BA and MA degrees in social sciences, law and business. Bifröst University can trace its roots back to the Cooperative College, founded in 1918 by the Federation of Icelan- dic Cooperatives, and operated as a grammar school until 1988 when it was turned into a University. The school was originally a kind of coop- erative counterweight to the Com- merce College, Verzlunarskóli Íslands, founded in 1905 and operated by the Chamber of commerce since 1922. In 1988, the same year Bifröst was reor- ganised as a university, the Commerce College founded its own University of Computer Science, which became Reykjavík University in 1998. Finally, there are two small agri- cultural universities, The Agricultural University of Iceland at Hvanneyri, Western Iceland and Hólar University college in Northern Iceland, who both offer BA and MA degrees in agricul- ture, tourism and resource manage- ment. ANNA ANDERSEN NATSHA NANDABHIWAT Are you an 'arty kid' that goes to 'art school? Why don't you draw us some comix or something? Make yourself useful for a change? DJÓK! But you should still draw us some comix.
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