The latest issue of Broadsheet, a publication from the The Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia (CACSA) there is a review by Sean Lowry of Rethinking the Contemporary art School: The artist, the PhD and the academy (edited by Brad Buckley and John Conomos).

Traditionally the artist is granted the privilege of creative prerogatives over and above the norms of the state with the entire academy can be understood as living in a state of exception. However, the academy, including the art school, lives with increasing market pressures and the university administration increasingly demanding that departments, disciplines, and faculties respond to the market. However, that ‘market’ should not be confined to the economic balance sheet between cost and production value but understood as the larger public that consumes the products of academic research, whatever the discipline.

Another tradition is the dichotomy between theory and practice has troubled thinking on art. The teaching of art exclusively in terms of ‘skills training’ devalues the educational value of critical debate, discussion and difference. For some art students, a correlation between a lack of interest in theory and conceptions of art as a sensory expression of their individuality remains deeply embedded in the understanding of their own practice.

Lowry highlights the role of research given that the challenge for contemporary art education is to somehow provide a structure for experimentation. He says:

Do artists need PhDs? If so what is the best model? what is an appropriate relationship between a studio practice and a written thesis? How might the relationship between theory and practice at an undergraduate level best prepare students for postgraduate study? How can the boundaries between disciplines be made more permeable? will creative endeavours be forever marginalised within the research culture of the university?

education in general has shifted from teacher-centred instruction and a linear one-size fits all format toward student-centred facilitation and interaction. In accordance with navigational approaches emphasised by digital communication, students are often better served by being able to browse and then take their own course pathways through a curriculum....The net result is less broadcasting and more collaborative or participatory modes of production and distribution. we are now all both uploading and downloading culture. It is clear that any pedagogy that does not acknowledge and integrate this reality is unsustainable.