European higher education plan for a Knowledge- based society, a destruction of Art Universities.

Refers to the German text, for the English speaking audiences:

The story repeats for sure, again and again, a institution is threatened by government, to be closed down because it cost too much, "they say".

Scenario: the director relatively clever decides, we need to save costs and make some money, so lets look what we can shut down and to whom we must connect. We have a plan, and will move more into design, "creative industries" and move away from art / experiment. Why, because every government bureaucrat will understand that, and then the threat is over for a while.

That I call Nespresso strategy , it is in the first moment cheaper and looks good, feeds more people in the same time, but the final price comes later, through the back door, best example is the London creative edu market orbiting around the RCA.

The whole case is deeply routed in, state bureaucrats against academics and the quality of teaching. This is a tendency in European education, 1st to streamline education according what management needs to understands about education, Nespresso like, and 2nd cutting down departments which do not fit in "theoretical design simulation", relates to "creative industries", again here "Nespresso looks cheaper, but sells better".

State Academy of Art and Design [German] and in [English] .

If a director has no courage and no understanding, the whole concept of the creative University brakes down in to a live style strategy with an attached supermarket business. Since Bologna treaty: "This is of the highest importance, given that Universities' independence and autonomy ensure that higher education and research systems continuously adapt to changing needs, society's demands and advances in scientific knowledge".

Each member state of the EURO Area is allowed to run one elite special subject department with academic and financial freedom and the rest of the institutions in the country need to feed work placement like into industry standards. This law has been introduced to cut down on research related universities, from so called rational sciences. This is a bit simplified but in praxis this is the case. The consequences for academics is that they need to become, marketers, sales person, organisers, multi managers, funding hunters, sponsor agency and promotion vehicle. In rational Universities it is now custom and practise that, if you want research time you need to buy it from the University, if not you are drowning in cheap teaching and bad administration.

See MANIFESTA 6 -Notes for an art school.

Creative Universities, like more art oriented struggle to reformat, the Government which pays, gave the order so they follow into there own destruction. With all nasty tricks and strategies, non profit and more experimental departments are closed down, because they do not fit into the educational mainstream. Academics are loosing there jobs and the institutions are treating there own employees like slaves.

Creative Universities are clearly routed in so called "Humanities or Basic Sciences", institutionally integrated like some in the US, in non rational science colleges within the University. Not that I say in US is all better, but in some places there is far more understanding about the subject. Experimenting and crossing borders is an established format of academic progress in rational and non rational research and in general a progress of society and there culture. What happens here clearly is regress.

To the case, I remember being employed in an UK institution, the management forced use for months into brainwashing staff-development seminars, about privacy, copyright, racial discrimination, gender and how to deal "better not to deal" with students. The core idea was, to save us getting prosecuted from students, we as academics felt like imprisoned in a new world order. But there was no hope, education became a product of fear, on the end I left the institution.

If you ask why this all happens, well the industry wants to a have the major part of the education cake (the tax money they paid, back) and basically shut down all the non profit institutions. This tendency runs cross all disciplines, privatisation of health care, of transport, energy sector and on the end of the cycle is the education which needs to become self-sufficient like most businesses. The best thing in town is, corrupt politicians and a devote director, this is the case here in Stuttgart.

You can say change and maybe rightly so needs to happen, the art market has little to do with art, so aswell the edu institutions, they all are just the mirror of the condition of our consumer society. A proper down town Apple shop runs dayli "workshops and has a genius bar", so you learn there and than you work at home. As we know the medal has meanwhile 3 sides, so for shore there is also a positive side of such a change.

It is branded as Knowledge-based society and in one short breath comes life long learning with it, the LIFE STYLE mantra over and over repeated in UK education, where is the wisdom left and yes they say: you never finish to learn, there is always something which can keep you busy. Read more about: Forces and forms of change , and understand why creative institutions do not fit in this strategic plan.

In 2005

V. Preparing for 2010

Building on the achievements so far in the Bologna Process, we wish to establish a European Higher Education Area based on the principles of quality and transparency. We must cherish our rich heritage and cultural diversity in contributing to a knowledge-based society. We commit ourselves to upholding the principle of public responsibility for higher education in the context of complex modern societies. As higher education is situated at the crossroads of research, education and innovation, it is also the key to Europe’s competitiveness. As we move closer to 2010, we undertake to ensure that higher education institutions enjoy the necessary autonomy to implement the agreed reforms, and we recognise the need for sustainable funding of institutions.

We endorse the follow-up structure set up in Berlin, with the inclusion of the Education International (EI) Pan-European Structure, the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), and the Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe (UNICE) as new consultative members of the Follow-up Group.