Etude AS Universities ENG KH final

OPERA HOUSES AND THEIR COOPERATION WITH HIGHER EDUCATION A survey of Anne-Sophie Noël Head of Education, La Monnaie With the support of RESEO Brussels April 2010 DÉVELOPPEMENT CULTUREL Opera houses and their Cooperation with Higher Education Introduction The Bologna Declaration, which was signed on 19 June 1999 by 29 European countries (including Switzerland) aims at furthering convergence in European higher education courses and diplomas, therefore allowing greater student mobility by mutually recognising qualifications and promoting a “Europe of Research”. This Declaration is based on three main characteristics: • It can be applied to any institution of higher education; • Technical terms have been redefined: now we commonly use the terms Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees; • A standard academic year is composed of 60 credits or ECTS, corresponding to the time spent by each student on each course. Teaching is organised in three phases. The first phase is called “transitory” and leads to a Bachelor’s academic degree, the second one is “professionalising” and leads to a Master’s degree and the third phase corresponds to the former Doctoral degree. In Belgium, the Bologna Declaration caused universities to rethink their teaching in a more transversal way. Students are thus invited to choose optional courses in addition to their major. Universitary teaching is increasingly encouraging the students’ ...