ArtsHub brings you this the second part of artist, writer and adjunct professor of fine art at RMIT University Peter Hill’s essay entitled ‘The Art of the Matter’ originally published in The Times Higher Education.
Over the past five years, stacks of books and magazine articles, all written at the highest level of engagement with the politics of the contemporary art school, have asked “whither now”? What will be the impact of the Bologna Process on the way art is taught and courses are structured? Will the PhD replace the MFA as the terminating degree at most university art schools? Will creative studio research be rewarded by grant-making bodies or will artists have to twist themselves around some ill-fitting “theory” model? Will the UK abandon Bologna in favour of a fast- track two-year undergraduate degree – and will Australia, as so often happens, follow suit several years down the line?
