What are the key social, economic and technological developments shaping the environment in which higher education institutions operate?
In creative arts at the undergraduate level all institutions face the perennial problem of balancing theoretical, aesthetic and professional development with craft skill acquisition within a relatively short time frame; of developing strategies for nurturing creativity and encouraging risk taking within a structured learning environment; and of graduating students who will contribute to the culture of the future rather than reproducing that of the past. This is in addition to the challenge of accommodating (and funding) a rapidly changing technological infrastructure that informs production, performance and exhibition and the growing demand for flexible modes of delivery, even for traditional “studio” based subjects. It is already a reality that our visual art, our music and our performance are seen and heard by larger audiences through electronic media than in their original aural or visceral form. Our undergraduate students are as familiar, often more familiar, with computer, video a
