art and qualification

The Norwegian Artistic Research Programme

c/o Bergen Academy of Art and Design, Strømgaten 1, NO-5015 Bergen

Tel. (+47) 55 58 73 00 Fax (+47) 55 58 73 10 www.kunststipendiat.no

Art and qualification The Steering Committee’s new plan for the common academic activities and mandatory components of

the programme.

1 Introduction

1.1 Background

In May 2010, the Steering Committee for the Norwegian Artistic Research Programme appointed a

select committee that was tasked with assessing the mandatory components of the Norwegian Artistic

Research Fellowship Programme seen in relation to the National Qualification Framework for the third

cycle in higher education.

The select committee submitted a recommendation that the Steering Committee has chosen to use as

the basis for a restructuring of the programme activities. Part of the discussion in the select

committee’s memo is therefore reproduced below.

1.2 The relationship between artistic research, the Fellowship Programme, the programme

activities and the Qualification Framework

Artistic research, the artistic parallel to scholarly research in general, is enshrined in the Act relating

to universities and university colleges as a joint goal for higher education institutions in Norway.

The subject area of art encompasses the whole arts field, as it is manifested in Norwegian institutions

of higher education. At the same time, it shall be understood to include a project-specific and subject-

specific dimension.

The Artistic Research Programme has been assigned overall national responsibility by the Ministry of

Research and Education for stimulating and focusing on artistic research in Norway.

The Fellowship Programme is designed to have a national perspective on the progress of artistic

research in the whole arts field, while at the same time facilitating the completion of artistic projects

by research fellows that in many cases involve highly subject-specific challenges.

Artistic research is already described in the existing National Qualification Framework – hereinafter

referred to as NQF – in most of the relevant areas and in relevant forms. For the purpose of

clarification, the Steering Committee has made a few changes to the NQF’s wording, in order to relate

the framework more clearly to the arts field. The changes are regarded as editorial clarifications, not

changes to the content.

The Steering Committee understands knowledge and skills to mean the development of knowledge and

insight through own artistic practice.

Art and qualification ver. 4 p. 2 of 10 pages

The select committee discussed how the different requirements set out in the NQF can be met under

the auspices of the programme. Overall, it should not be a problem to meet these requirements, but it

must be underlined that most of the sub-elements in the NQF cannot be satisfied through a single

initiative. For the select committee, it has nonetheless been important to be clear about which parts

of programme completion the different competence requirements in the NQF will primarily focus on.

In extension of this, the Steering Committee has deemed it important to distinguish between the

different main elements relating to the research fellow’s academic development and activities:

Project development – in which the supervisors play a key role in relation to follow-up;

The subject-specific and project-specific competence – in which facilitation by the host

institution is of decisive importance;

Artistic research in an overall national and international perspective – in which the programme’s

joint activities have a very central place.

This division is described in more detail in Chapter 3 and exemplified in a matrix (Appendix 1) linked to

the organisation currently used by the NQF.

1.3 The project in focus

The select committee’s fundamental idea is that each research fellow’s project should be the point of

reference and perspective for both the programme’s interdisciplinary profile and for elective or

mandatory courses/seminars.

This will reinforce the principle that reflection should be practice-based and that interdisciplinarity is

the meeting point for common artistic references.

This does not in itself represent a shift in the programme’s profile, but it articulates and clarifies the

educational principle that should govern the content and form of the different activities in the

programme.

1.4 Critical reflection

The focus on critical reflection also has a central place, including how it is developed through practice

(in the project work as well as in the assessment processes) and through discussions in various forums

such as Artistic Research Forums, thematic seminars etc. The Steering Committee’s goal is to identify

measures and structures that can, in the best way possible, help to develop an understanding of how

artistic reflection can be expressed and that can strengthen this dimension of the research fellowship

projects.

2 Division of responsibility in relation to the requirements in the NQF

The matrix in Appendix 1 describes who is responsible for contributing to ensuring that the candidate

acquires the different qualifications, and in what way. This is further outlined in Appendix 2 in the

form of a graphic timeline for the research fellowship period, which has also been used as a tool for

mapping and specifying this division of responsibility.


The matrix provides an overview of how the requirements in the NQF are met by the programme. The

columns show which part of the programme involves taking steps to ensure that the research fellow

acquires the different qualifications. The Steering Committee has found it expedient to summarise the

roles of the different participants across the requirements in the framework in a summary text in the

following paragraphs. This part of the memo must be read in parallel with the matrix.

2.1 The research fellow’s responsibility for his/her own project

It is a fundamental precondition for the programme that the research fellow has chief responsibility for

his/her own professional development and for completion of the project. It is important to be aware of

this perspective in all contexts when reading the rest of this memo, which addresses how both the

programme as a whole and the various participants involved in the programme shall attend to and

facilitate satisfactory development of research fellows’ projects and help each candidate to meet the

requirements for the third cycle level in the NQF.

One of the learning outcomes defined in the NQF is that the candidate ‘can assess the need for,

initiate and practise innovation’. Innovation is intrinsic to artistic practice. It is thus the research

fellow’s development and completion of the project that generates the relevant competence.

2.2 The supervisors’ duties

The supervisors play an important role in the development of the project-specific dimensions. This

responsibility is related to all the individual elements of the NQF, including knowledge, skills and

general competence. The form will primarily be based on project reviews and conversations, but

establishing contact with relevant professional networks and forums for the discussion of ethical issues

related to the project will also be part of the supervisors’ duties.

Keywords in relation to the contact between the research fellow and his/her supervisor are artistic

practice, contextualisation of the project, critical artistic reflection and realism as regards scope and

completion. The supervisors have a particular responsibility for helping to ensure that the research

fellow uses the revised project description to ensure that the project is focused, that the project finds

a relevant form in relation to the international discourse in the field in question and that the research

fellows succeeds in identifying relevant partners.

In the final phase of the project, in the period leading up to the presentation of the artistic results and

critical reflection, the supervisor must play an active part in discussing the choice of forms of

presentation and documentation, and contribute to ensuring that the research fellow makes good

choices as regards how to disseminate the project.

The supervisor must be in continuous contact with the host institution and be familiar with the

structures and processes that apply in the research fellow’s own institution and the programme’s goals

and activities in general.

In order to attend to these duties, supervisors must:

have a high level of professional expertise;

have good knowledge of the goals and framework for the programme;

be in continuous contact with the institution;


participate in regular exchanges of experience with other supervisors, both subject-specific and in

general;

in the long term, be able to draw on experience from work on assessment committees.

2.3 The institutions’ responsibilities

The role of the institution is strongly related to the subject-specific and project-specific dimension of

the programme for the research fellows. This includes responsibility for facilitating project completion

and ensuring a relevant framework for final presentations, documentation strategies and dissemination

plans.

The role of the institution is also related to all the individual elements of the framework: knowledge,

skills and general competence. The institution must attend to these aspects in a variety of ways:

Based on the institution’s and the research fellow’s artistic practice, the institution’s academic

leadership team must take steps to ensure that the research fellow is actively integrated in the

academic environment, at the same time as the programme must be organised in a manner that uses

the research fellowship projects as a resource in the academic environment – preferably also in

relation to teaching at master’s and bachelor level. The institution must take steps to facilitate

systematic networks – nationally and internationally – for each project.

The institution must – in dialogue with the research fellows and supervisors – consider what subject-

specific and project-specific competence individual research fellows will need to complete their

projects, and what competence will be required by several or all research fellows in the same

discipline (or across disciplines/institutional boundaries). The institution must develop relevant

training in relation to this, either by itself or in collaboration with other institutions. See also section

4.4.

The institution must make arrangements for research fellows to take part in and organise subject- and

project-specific seminars locally and outside the institution.

Each research fellowship project must receive regular, organised internal follow-up in relation to the

progress schedule (milestones) for project development and subject-specific components, subject-

related ethical issues and forms of presentation and the choice of channel for the dissemination of

results. The institution must ensure that the research fellow has adequate project management skills

and sufficient funding to complete the project, including the final presentation, permanent

documentation of the artistic results and publication of critical reflection.

At a more general level in relation to each individual research fellow, the institution must ensure

systematic development of the research fellow environment at the institution, if relevant in

collaboration with other institutions. A system for regular, good follow-up of internal and external

supervisors must be established, so that a good supervisor environment is established in the long term.

The institution must ensure that research fellows develop relevant teaching programmes relating to

their teaching duties. This is on the periphery of what is explicitly worded in the NQF, but will be set

out in the Steering Committee’s plan for the mandatory components


Pursuant to the agreement on participation in the programme, the institution must ensure that good

supervisors are nominated who have sufficient time for supervision and to familiarise themselves with

the goals and frameworks of the Fellowship Programme. Nominating members of the assessment

committee for each individual candidate’s final assessment is another equally important task.

The institution’s responsibility for facilitation can be summarised in seven points:

1. Strengthening of and integration in the academic environment

2. Subject-specific/project-specific training, cf. item 7

3. Progress and project development

4. Strengthening the local environment for research fellows/supervisors

5. Relevant teaching duties

6. Recruitment to assessment committees

7. Developing relevant subject-specific and project-specific courses, and courses that may be relevant

to a number of research fellows across institutions and disciplines, cf. section 3.4.

2.4 The duties of the Steering Committee

The Steering Committee has overriding responsibility for the programme overall, including formal and

operational responsibility, and responsibility for completion of the programme. In relation to the NQF,

the Steering Committee’s responsibilities include determining the division of responsibility between

the key participants, ensuring that this division of responsibility is adhered to and carrying out the

mandatory activities that are part of the Steering Committee’s responsibility. In the description of

forums, seminars and subject-specific/project-specific courses set out below, the Steering Committee

is responsible for planning and organising the forums and seminars, and informing about the subject-

specific/project-specific training, and other courses provided by the institutions.

The Steering Committee’s role in relation to meeting the requirements in the NQF consists in particular

of ensuring that research fellows gain insight into and an understanding of artistic research in an

overall national and international perspective, that experience is shared, that artistic results are

discussed on a regular basis in an artistic research perspective and that methods and terminology for

critical artistic reflection are developed. This responsibility is related to most of the individual

elements of the Qualification Framework, including knowledge, skills and general competence.

Keywords in relation to this dimension are insight into a wide range of artistic practices, viewing

artistic research in the context of international dimensions and relevant traditions, understanding of

roles and level of ambition, discursive articulation ability, discussion of methods, focus on critical

artistic reflection and the transfer of experience between research fellows (both within and across

intake years) and between different disciplines, copyright, the use of sources, understanding subject-

related ethical issues and academic independence. Using English as the working language will be an

important element in developing research fellows’ ability to participate in subject-related debates in

international forums.


The Steering Committee recommends attending to these dimensions in three main ways:

1. Annual Artistic Research Forums (every spring) that largely build on the experience and practice

established up until that point, with project presentations by the research fellows on a rolling basis.

2. These forums are supplemented by a new form of annual Artistic Research Forums (every autumn),

organised in cooperation with host institutions on a rolling basis, with the main focus on the

presentation and discussion of artistic results.

3. The Steering Committee proposes that a intake year-based series of seminars be established that

build on experience from the mandatory courses. These seminars will be thematic, linked to the main

elements outlined above and held in the course of the first two years of the research fellowship period;

see section 4.2 and Appendices 2 and 3 for a more detailed description.

The responsibilities of the Steering Committee can be summarised in six points:

1. Accentuating and highlighting the interdisciplinary aspect;

2. Developing and understanding artistic research in an international perspective;

3. Organising Artistic Research Forums and research school seminars;

4. Offering supervisors training in the regulations, routines and procedures, and the interdisciplinary

values of the programme;

5. Ensuring equal treatment and quality assurance in relation to admission and final assessment

procedures;

6. Contributing to information about subject-specific and project-specific courses etc. from the

institutions.

3 Structure and content of the programme’s mandatory activities

The programme’s mandatory components will consist of:

Six Artistic Research Forums organised by the Steering Committee;

Four research school seminars organised by the Steering Committee (the forums and seminars are

worth a total of 20 credits);

A number of elective subject-specific/project-specific courses under the auspices of the

institutions or others (10 credits);

Teaching obligation.


3.1 The Artistic Research Forums

The focus of the Artistic Research Forums will be on promoting an understanding of artistic research in

a national and international perspective, the programme’s interdisciplinary dimensions, the research

fellows’ ability to present their projects in an interdisciplinary context, relevant forms of presentation,

and on facilitating discussion about the projects’ overriding dimensions.

In order to add more dimension to the forums and increase the focus on artistic results, the Steering

Committee proposes two types of arenas for presentations and discussions for the forums:

Three of the Artistic Research Forums (the spring forums) focus on project presentations and

discussion at a suitable conference venue / hotel. The three main topics for the research fellows’

project presentations will be:

o The introductory presentation (first spring forum)

o A challenge in connection with the project, with an opponent (second spring forum)

o The status of the project before the final assessment (third spring forum)

Three of the Artistic Research Forums (the autumn forums) are held on the institution’s premises,

with the main focus being on presentations and discussion of project work. In the long term,

these forums should be coordinated with the Project Programme’s annual seminar on the same

topic.

As before, the aim of the Artistic Research Forums is to bring together research fellows from all intake

years, supervisors and representatives of the institution who have important duties in relation to

artistic research and in following up the Fellowship Programme at their own institution.

Participation in the Artistic Research Forums will be mandatory for all research fellows. The scope of

participation will be the same as before.

3.2 The research school seminars

The present mandatory courses will be replaced by four research school seminars. The seminars shall

have a thematic focus and academic progression. They will be organised as intensive work sessions

lasting for two to four days. The main elements at the seminars will consist of increasing the research

fellows’ in-depth knowledge about artistic research, relevant methods for critical artistic reflection,

the documentation of artistic results and ethical aspects of artistic activities.

The individual research school seminars shall have the following main focus:

1. Artistic research: history, status, methods etc.

2. Forms of documentation and critical reflection

3. Ethical issues. Copyright. Relationship to third parties

4. Where is the project headed artistically? The development of reflection and discussion of

suitable forms.

An introduction to publishing in the Journal for Artistic Research should also be produced.


The seminars will be organised for individual intake year groups of research fellows and will be far

more intimate than the forums. The seminars should be held at fixed times throughout the year, and

the Steering Committee will be responsible for appointing people to chair the individual seminars.

Participation in the research school seminars will be mandatory for all research fellows in the relevant

intake year. This part of the joint programme will be much more extensive than before, but this is

necessary in order to increase the research fellows’ understanding of artistic research and to meet the

requirements in the NQF.

3.3 Cycle for the Fellowship Programme and each individual research fellow:

Annual cycle for the research fellow’s obligations under the joint programme (see also Appendix 3):

June – Year 1: Admission of research fellows

October – Year 1: Start-up of new research fellows and first research school seminar

October - Annually: Artistic Research Forum (at the institution)

January – Year 1: Second research school seminar

March - Annually: Artistic Research Forum (conference venue/hotel)

June – Year 1: Third research school seminar

February – Year 2: Fourth research school seminar

3.4 Subject-specific and project-specific training component

The subject-specific/project-specific dimension of the mandatory component of the programme is

retained, and it will still be the host institution’s responsibility to ensure that the research fellows

acquire the necessary competence. The scope should be approximately 10 credits. The content of the

subject-specific/project-specific component is retained, at the same time as the courses will both be

more general and adapted to each individual research fellow.

The input from the forum at Voksenåsen in October 2010 showed that there were many different needs

as regards training and skills in documentation, writing and general theory. Introductory courses in the

following topics were mentioned: video documentation/video essays, writing (creative writing, reports,

essays, storytelling), web design, running/managing a production, photo documentation, theory of

knowledge, layout – InDesign, presentation, staging, aesthetics/aesthetic philosophy, philosophy of art,

phenomenology.

The Steering Committee sees a clear need to strengthen the research fellows’ competence by offering

such courses, but it has not found that they constitute a necessary common frame of reference. Such

courses should therefore belong under the institution’s area of responsibility and be seen in relation to

the needs of individual research fellows, or groups of research fellows. In this perspective, it is also

natural that the participating institutions are responsible for developing relevant courses.

The biggest institutions in disciplines in which several institutions have research fellows should be able

to offer courses in their specific disciplines that are also relevant to research fellows outside the

institution.


The Steering Committee’s aim is that each institution that has research fellows in the programme

should offer at least one course per year related to the subject-specific / project-specific training

component.

In consultation with the institution and their supervisors, the research fellows must put together a

subject-specific / project-specific component totalling ten credits. The scope will be the same as

before.

3.5 Teaching obligation

A precondition for teaching at a high level is that it is based on artistic research (and scholarly

research). Although teaching is not mentioned explicitly in the NQF, the Steering Committee regards it

as essential in the education of our future teachers. The value of teaching experience is also implied in

the NQF’s categories: ‘dissemination’, ‘participate in discourse’ and ‘contributing to the development

of knowledge’.

The teaching obligation currently amounts to eight weeks, including preparations and any follow-up

work. It must normally be completed during the first two years of the research fellowship period. This

arrangement is retained in the same form and scope, but, in accordance with practice in the sector

otherwise, it is not included in the training component of the programme.

4 Implementation and progress schedule

4.1 The Artistic Research Forums

If we look at the structure and content of the proposed plan for the Artistic Research Forums in

isolation, it is possibly to envisage this being fully implemented from autumn 2011. The pace of

implementation must be seen in conjunction with how quickly it is practically possible to organise a

forum at the institution and whether existing hotel agreements and new bookings etc. can be

appropriately adapted. An alternative implementation schedule could therefore involve phasing in the

new type of forums by spring 2012.

A programme committee should be established consisting of members of the Steering Committee,

representatives of the relevant host institutions and research fellows that will be tasked with preparing

and planning each of these autumn meetings.

4.2 The research school seminars

On the condition that courses in copyright are held for the 2009 and 2010 intake years, the

requirement under the current system will be met for these groups of research fellows.

The new seminar plan should be implemented in full from autumn 2011. This means that the 2011

intake year will begin with the new system from start-up, while the 2010 intake year and earlier years

will be given an opportunity to take part in the seminars where this is appropriate and where there is

available capacity.


4.3 Subject/project-specific training component

A reasonable range of such courses should be offered depending on the pace of implementation

chosen, but no later than in the course of 2012.

4.4 Teaching obligation

No changes have been made as regards the teaching obligation, and nor, therefore, is there an

implementation dimension for this component.

4.5 Financial consequences

Over and above the fact that each participating institution must take responsibility for at least one

subject-specific course, no changes are planned as regards the allocation of costs between the

programme and the institutions as a result of the implementation of the revised system. The Ministry

has otherwise stated that the Steering Committee must continuously assess how the common activities

in the programme will be financed in relation to the total allocation for the Fellowship Programme.

Bergen, 25 May 2012.

Hans Knut Sveen

Johan A Haarberg

Appendices: Requirements and responsibility matrix in relation to the NQF

Keywords in relation to academic focus and learning outcomes for Artistic Research

Forums and research school seminars

Timeframe for the research fellowship period

Mandate for the select committee

art and qualification

Documents