AFAM

Higher Education in Art, Music and Dance

Higher Education in Art, Music and Dance (AFAM) is part of the Italian higher education system and includes: state and public Academies of Fine Art (Accademie di Belle Arti); state Music Conservatories (Conservatori di Musica) and other public Music Institutes (ex Istituti Musicali Pareggiati); state Design colleges (Istituti Superiori per le Industrie Artistiche – ISIA); the National Academy of Dance (Accademia Nazionale di Danza); the National Academy of Drama (Accademia Nazionale d’Arte Drammatica); Private institutions authorized to award qualifications of Higher Education in Art, Music and Dance (art.11 of Presidential Decree no. 212/2005).

Based on recent regulatory provisions introduced in the AFAM sector (The MUR memo no. 1071/2021, 2017 National Budget Law no. 205/2017, MIUR Decree no. 14/2018) in addition to the provisions of Presidential Decree no. 212/2005, ANVUR is involved in the following activities:

• for all higher education institutions in Art, Music and Dance: the accreditation of new second cycle diploma programmes; the evaluation of the Annual Self Evaluation Reports of the Institutions’ Internal Quality Assurance Panels;
• for accredited private institutions and non-state Academies: the initial and periodical (at the end of the first and third years of activity and at least once every three years thereafter) accreditation of first cycle diploma programmes;
• for new private institutions: the initial accreditation of first cycle diploma programmes.

In addition to these activities, ANVUR appoints working groups of experts of the AFAM sector to provide advice in the definition of guidelines, criteria, and methodologies for the evaluation and monitoring of AFAM programmes. These working groups also provide advice concerning methods and procedures to develop data collection models, as to facilitate the analysis, monitoring, and evaluation of the teaching, research, artistic production and Third Mission in the AFAM sector.

Complaints and re-evaluation procedures

For each of the following evaluation procedures:

• initial accreditation of first cycle diploma programmes for new private institutions accreditation of new second cycle diploma programmes,
• accreditation of new first and second cycle diploma programmes,
• periodical accreditation of AFAM private institutions authorized to award qualifications of Higher Education in Art, Music and Dance (art.11 of Presidential Decree no. 212/2005),

the Institution can: a) present observations or counter-arguments during the evaluation process, before the final decision by ANVUR; b) ask for a review of ANVUR evaluation.

A) Complaints procedure

In case of a preliminary negative evaluation, during the accreditation process the Institution has the possibility to present observations or counter-arguments within ten days from the formal notification of the Agency preliminary evaluation (art. 10-bis of Law 241/1990).

These observations or counter-arguments will be taken into consideration by the Panel of Experts in its final report. Consequently, ANVUR will consider the Institutions’ observations and the Experts’ final report in the drafting of the Agency final evaluation report.

B) Review of ANVUR evaluation

In case of a final negative decision by ANVUR, the Institution has only one possibility to submit a written and reasoned request for a review of the decision to the Ministry and the Agency (art. 4 of Presidential Decree no. 76/2010, as governed by Article 16 of the Agency’s Organization and Operation Regulation).

Exclusively in the cases described in the abovementioned regulation and through a specific procedure, the institution concerned may submit a request for a review of the decision within 10 days of the receipt of the negative decision of the Agency. Within the following 30 days, the Guarantee Committee (GC) evaluates the eligibility of the application and sends the results of the review to the Governing Board, which takes the final decision with a resolution to be adopted within 10 days of receipt of the evaluation from the GC.