ERASMUS POLICY STATEMENT (EPS)
Our Conservatory is one of the biggest in Italy with approximately 1200 students and 204 teachers. As of 2013 the internationalization process has become the core of the Institute’s wider strategy of modernization and development. The artisan approach to ‘knowing and knowing how to do something,’ which is typically in the Italian Conservatory tradition, has radically transformed and evolved over the last seven years. This is due to being open, making comparisons and exchanging ideas, approaches and innovative practices. International cooperation and both student and teaching staff mobility have definitely contributed to the realization of this change. The necessity for institutes to mutually recognize the quantity and quality of study that they undertake has also highly accelerated the implementation process of the ECTS system. Artistic, academic and research cooperation together with student, teaching and non-teaching staff mobility enhances the participants’ flexibility and adaptability. It guarantees the knowledge of different pedagogical approaches and innovative practices as well as facilitating entering the world of work.
On a more general level, promoting international relations is considered to be essential for developing a greater civic and social awareness. It is also important for development from a human, educational, professional, individual and collective point of view. Being aware of the fact that working with music is a privileged means for developing interpersonal relations and facilitating communication between people and societies is also essential. Breaking down physical and cultural barriers is a winning factor for citizens’ civil and political progress as well as for the society as a whole.
Our internationalization policy for the near future intends to develop mainly along the following regional axes:
1) Europe, a common cultural home;
2) Bari and the Eurasian regions (Russia, Belarus and Ukraine);
3) Bari, gateway to the Mediterranean;
4) Bari and the Far East.
These areas obviously do not delimit the potentiality of the Conservatory of Bari’s international collaboration (our Conservatory has worked for years in partnerships and artistic projects with the University of Irvine, USA and the National Conservatory of Lima, Peru). They are, however, the strategic priorities to follow in the immediate future.
The first axis is the most important one and represents the cultural horizon within which the other three move and develop.
A common culture, history and tradition is what brings us together, beyond the specific features of each nation, and constitutes the indestructible foundation of our European, cultural and social belonging.
With this in mind, the Erasmus Project is of indispensable strategic value. On the one hand, it stimulates ideas, knowledge, experience, expertise, common values and differences as well as reinforcing the European spirit of belonging. On the other hand, it guides the institutions, both on a national level and on a level for each individual university, towards a conscious implementation of policies, practices and tools which all contribute to creating a real European Higher Education Area.
Our innovation strategy will work at promoting the development of knowledge and competences, supporting student and staff mobility and recognizing internships in study programs, with the aim of creating a bridge to the world of work by intercepting present and future needs.
Self-entrepreneurship, various forms of learning (in presence, blended, remote, in synchronous and asynchronous mode, part-time, modular) and the use of new technologies are institutionally encouraged, with the conviction that higher education must be inclusive, open and encourage the breaking down of social, economic and cultural barriers between people and populations.
Actively being part of the European Association of Conservatoires, whose Mission, as described in the Strategic Plan is connected to the concepts of social responsibility, diversity and inclusion, to the promotion of the value of music and music education in our society, to the increase of employability and the development of the capacity and improvement of digitalization, will contribute to strengthening the direction of the Conservatory of Bari’s policy, a direction which has, for some time, been undertaken and pursued with conviction and vigor.
