On 12 May 2022, the Director of SKVC signed an order to accredit the Vilnius Academy of Arts (Vilniaus dailės akademija – VDA) for a 7-year term.
The external evaluation of the VDA has been carried out since September 2021, when the higher education institution submitted a self-assessment summary to the SKVC. A remote visit of an international expert team to the HEI was organised on 16-18 November 2021.
The experts proposed to evaluate the performance of the higher education institution positively.
All four review areas were scored well, with three points each (on a five point scale where 1 is the lowest and 5 is the highest mark). This means, the areas of Management, Quality Assurance, Studies and Research (Art), and Impact on Regional and National Development are being developed systematically and without major drawbacks.
The Expert Panel welcomes the VDA objectives as set out in its mission and plans, but recommends ensuring that the planning and measures underpinning the institution's strategic plans are more closely linked to sound objectives, performance indicators, prioritisation and evaluation. It is recommended that the VDA carefully review the balance between the scope of its activities and its objectives in its strategic planning.
The expert team found that there were no major weaknesses in the VDA quality assurance activities. One of the main recommendations would be that the university should improve the extent and methods of collecting information related to quality assurance processes. The Expert Panel found that many of these processes are informal and are not systematically applied, and it is recommended that quality improvement processes be further formalised in order to systematise the assessment and planning of change.
The VDA internationalisation-related activities have clear advantages, yet these are partly mitigated by the dependence on an informal culture. Both academic and research activities are developed at a high level and have a high impact, and the teaching and research staff are active and involved in the activities of the VDA. Meanwhile, students value the opportunities, skills and personal approach to learning provided by the VDA. However, experts note that many processes are undermined by a lack of strategic planning (especially internationalisation planning) and reliance on informal procedures.
The Expert Panel recommends that the VDA should continue to work towards a wider recognition of artistic research to help create career opportunities for PhD-holding artists, designers and architects, and to give them the opportunity to undertake postdoctoral and further research projects and to become part of the research community, both within the VDA and internationally.
The VDA has a visible impact at regional and national level. In the evaluation conclusions, the experts underlined that the Nida Art Colony and its residency programme and the curation of the Lithuanian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale are an outstanding example of national and international practice, which deserves to be better showcased internationally.
VDA is a state higher education institution, located in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda and Telšiai. In 2020-2021, VDA had 1563 students, including 30 full-time international students, 337 lecturers (212 Full-time equivalent (FTE)), 17 research staff (12 FTE) and 287 administrative and other support staff (238 FTE). Over the period 2016-2020, a total of 1845 alumni graduated from the Academy. At the time of the review, VAA offered 44 study programmes in 6 fields of study: Architecture, Design, Art, Media Art, Restoration of Art Objects, History, and Theory of Arts and had offered Management (up until 2020). Out of them there were 20 Bachelor’s degree programmes, 1 integrated study programme, 23 Master’s programmes and doctoral studies in three fields: Art, Design and History, and Theory of Arts. It also offers a joint programme with the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences in Art Therapy and contributes to the School Pedagogy Vocational Education Studies by training Art teachers at Vilnius University.
The full evaluation report of the Vilnius Academy of Arts can be found here.
