NASAD
(The United States)

– The United States is a certification agency for each subject area. NASAD is the only agency for arts (painting, design, dance, music, performance, leisure).

– NASAD is founded in 1944 as the national certification agency for arts and design institutes and programs in the United States and has more than 300 member institutions.

– It provides certification for not only professional arts and design institution but also for universities and specific arts and design programs within universities.

– Besides certification, it provides developmental, institutional, statistical and policy research. 

– Major art universities involved : PARSONS SCHOOL OF DESIGN, THE NEW SCHOOL RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN, SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, PRATT INSTITUTE, etc.

<NASAD Handbook: Program Guidelines>

Painting

Sculpture

Craft

Design

– Painting research constitutes 25-35% of the entire program

– Supports for arts and design: 20-30%

– Art History research: 10-15%

– General research: 25–35 %.

– Specialized research, art support program, and design and visual art history research usually constitutes more than 65% of the entire curriculum

* Required capability

1. An understanding of the basic design principles, concepts, media, and formats; the ability to deploy the composition of design elements and the effective use of drawing media in services that generate specific aesthetic intentions and conceptual locations.

2. An understanding of the possibilities and limits of drawing media. 

3. Knowledge and skills of using basic tools and techniques sufficient for work from conceptualization to final product completion, including mastery of traditional techniques and conceptual approaches to drawing.

4. Functional knowledge of the history of painting. 

5. Extensive exploration for various possibilities for technological manipulations of innovative images available to the draftsman.

6. Completion of final projects related to the work exhibition,  

– Ceramics research constitutes 25-35% of the entire program

– Supports for arts, design, and sculpture: 20-30 %

– Research on artistic and sculptural history: 10-15 %

– General research: 25–35 %.

– Specialized research, supports for art, design, and sculpture, visual art history research constitutes more than 65%

* Required capability  

1. An understanding of basic design principles related to ceramics, advanced work with 3D design and the development of design solutions must continue throughout the program.  

2. Knowledge and skills of using basic tools, techniques, and process usage sufficient for work from conceptualization to final product completion, including knowledge on materials and technological procedures like clay, glaze, and plasticity

 And knowledge about user conduct about materials and procedures that align with health, safety, and general environmental management.

3. An understanding of various applied ceramics technology. 

4. An understanding of the place of ceramics in the history of art, design, and culture.

5. Functional knowledge about basic business norms.

6. Clay body and glaze preparation, procedures for kiln building, and plasticity process

7. Easy and regular access to materials, equipment, and library resources relevant to ceramics studies

8. Completion of final projects related to the work exhibition

– Craft research constitutes 25-35% of the entire program

– Supports for arts, design, and sculpture: 20-30 %

– Research on artistic and craft history: 10-15 %

– General research: 25–35 %.

– Specialized research, supports for art, design, and craft, visual art history research constitutes more than 65%

* Required capability  

1. An understanding of basic design principles, concepts, media, and formats related to craft; and the ability to apply concepts into specific craft projects with an emphasis on 3D design.

2. Knowledge and skills about the relationship among applications and form of various media, aesthetic values, and functionality, and relevant craft techniques.

It is required to achieve technical capability in at least one specialized area in craft.

3. The ability to resolve technical problems and perform basic design in at least one specialized area in craft.

4. Practical knowledge about various design methods and conceptualization of craft project, the relationship between the development and completion

5. An understanding of the similarities, differences, and relationship among various craft specialization

6. An understanding of the place of crafts in the history of art, design, and culture

7. Functional knowledge about basic business norms

8. Promotion of similarity with various craft projects in various professional areas and media

9. Opportunities to develop specializations with a focus on craft

<Visual design>

– Communication design research constitutes 25-35% of the entire program

– Design-related technique and visual art class: 20-30%

– Research on art/design history and theory: 10-15%,

– General research: 25-35%, 

– Research on major areas (support programs for design, relevant techniques, and visual art; and visual art), design history and theory must constitute at least 65% of the curriculum

* Required capability  :

Visual communication integrating and including professional practical elements and system conception, design ability, basic visual communication principles, and an understanding and application of processes; the ability to integrating research and discovery about humans to decision-making about communication design, cooperation among departments, ability to use techniques, etc.

<Industrial design>

– Industrial design constitutes 35% of the entire program

–  Design-related techniques and visual arts: 25-30%

– Research about arts/design history and theory: 10-15%

– General research: 25-30%

– Research on industrial design, support programs for design, relevant techniques, visual arts, history and theory about arts and design must constitute at 65% of the general curriculum

* Required capability  :

The ability to design products and systems; the ability to use techniques and tools related to expression, development, commercialization, and usage of multi-dimensional systems; basic knowledge about the history of industrial design; the ability to research, define, and communicate about problems, variables, and requested items.

QAA
(The United Kingdom)

– The evaluation of the UK universities is conducted in two main forms: evaluation of the educational quality of higher education institutions and research performance evaluation.

– QAA (Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education), established to ensure independence and diversity of higher education institutions has been responsible for the evaluation to ensure the quality of education since 1997. HEFCE(Higher Education Funding Council for England) is conducting the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) for higher education institutions.

– QAA conducted self-evaluation to assess the relevant departments in early-stage universities and the strengths and weaknesses thereof but it was suspended in 2005. In 2006, the departmental evaluation was terminated. Currently, it seems that QAA only conducts university-wide evaluation.

– The departmental evaluation by QQA does not present the evaluative standards against which one can determine whether the evaluated entity meets the requirements or not. Instead, it focuses on presenting a guideline about how and what to include in the self-evaluation report and research about the quality of education that students are receiving.

<Arts and design guideline (Subject BenchMark_ Art & Design)>: attached is a general guide for self-evaluation reports

* Items to improve in arts/design

– Creativity, aesthetics, intellectual curiosity, teamwork techniques

– Perception of diversity, an understanding of quality and detailed items, the ability to conduct research using various methodologies

– The quality of reflecting critically about one’s own academic performance and development

– The ability to apply ethical considerations into creative work

– The ability to work flexibility and independently

– The ability to communicate through various channels

* The qualities to pursue

– The usage of materials, media, techniques, methodologies, technology and tools related to the research area incorporating technology and creativity while complying with professional and legal responsibilities needed for healthy and ethical norms and themes

– Creative application, possibility for employment, company, preparation for additional research, effective acquisition of knowledge and understanding in the context of research and individual development, clarification, synthesis and formation of qualities and technology

– An understanding of the role and effect of intellectual property in the context of arts and design

– The ability to apply, synthesize and develop learning into various situations both inside and outside the field of arts and design

<Evaluation Method>

– Evaluation takes place every six years. It is conducted with a document review based on the materials collected through self-evaluative reports submitted by educational institutions and those collected by the QAA, followed by an on-site evaluation.

– The members of the evaluative committee consist of 2-6 professors and students from other universities. The evaluative outcome is presented in one the three(satisfactory/improvement needed/unsatisfactory) or four (extremely satisfactory/satisfactory/improvement needed/unsatisfactory) levels accompanied with good examples and recommendations.

– Major arts universities involved: Royal College of Art, University of the Arts London, etc.

ACQUIN (Germany)

– Akkreditierungsrat is established in December 3, 1998 by KMK(Kulturministeriumkoferenz)

– This body consists of the representatives of higher education institutions, federations, professional unions and students. It aims to regulate the quality certification of teaching and educational programs and the substitutional certification agencies. ACQUIN is one of the agencies certified by this body.

– ACQUIN performs evaluation and approval procedures for curriculum of specialized studies in universities and professional schools. It focuses on active evaluation of program providers and has the authority to certify all majors provided by a higher education institution.

<Certification procedure for appraisal>

1. Internal evaluation by the program providers

2. Group peer evaluation by external experts designated by ACQUIN

3. Review of reports and opinions by ACQUIN experts

4. Confirmation of appraisal outcome (approval with or without condition)

– Major arts universities involved: Universität der Künste Berlin(Berlin Arts University), Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg (University of Hamburg), Akademie der Bildenden Künste München(The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich), Folkwang Universität der Künste, Essen(University of Essen, Germany), etc.