The Art School of Oviedo (EAO) is a public centre dependent on the Ministry of Education of the Government of Asturias that has been dedicated more than 225 years to provide higher education in the fields of Art and Design in Asturias. Currently, the EAO is member of the Confederation of Art and Design Schools (CEA) in Spain and of Graphic Designers Association of Asturias (AGA).
Our academic relationships in the European field have allowed the cooperation with several countries through Leonardo, Sócrates and Petra programmes. Since 1993 several bilateral agreements have been signed with different institutions of the EU and we have also organized exchange activities with Ecuador and Japan. These experiences are essential for the development of our students and the educative institutions, for this reason we do not only hope to maintain them but integrate them in the European framework of Higher Education.
The Erasmus Programme has been assigned a prominent space in EAO’S website so that it can be easily reached. The EPS is being publicized in a special section devoted to the Erasmus programme that includes information for incoming and outgoing students and staff on how to participate.
EAO guarantees the right to equality of opportunity, no matter sex, race, religion or socioeconomic status. Our educational project stands for openness, freedom of thought and non-discrimination. The diversity policy is based on merits, abilities and potential regardless of gender, origin or other distinction. There is a specific service to give support to disabled people and students with special educational needs to facilitate their access and participation in academic, sporting and social life.
EAO wishes to facilitate the development of a truly international community within our Schools. This community prepares and trains our students to be able to excel in their future professional and personal lives in a world characterized by international relations and globalization. Further internationalization is a main point of policy in the strategic plan 2014-2020 of EAO. This involves the creation of an international community and in connection with this an international classroom. To achieve this, staff and student mobility will be further encouraged, our policy and curriculum development will focus even more on an international working and learning environment.
The EAO’s current priorities are Erasmus mobility activities, namely student study and work placements, and staff teaching. Erasmus promotional activities are held for students and staff throughout the academic year with the aim of increasing the number of EAO students opting for study and work placements through the Erasmus programme.
Taking into account the artistic character of our studies, we intend to find a correspondence between the professional fields and the chosen host institution, e.g. Illustration-Belgium, Interior Design-Italy. Besides, all this is carried out with an open minded philosophy. Bilateral agreements are not signed until academic compatibility and complementarities are identified, ensuring a smooth way to academic recognition. Erasmus partner institutions are checked for options in different subject areas.
With regards to student and staff mobility we have several objectives:
- To enable students to benefit educationally, linguistically and culturally from the experience of learning in other European countries.
- To promote co-operation between institutions and to enrich the educational environment of host institutions.
- To contribute to the development of a pool of well-qualified, open-minded and internationally experienced young people as future professional.
- To encourage higher education institutions to broaden and enrich the range and content of courses they offer.
- To allow students who do not have the possibility to participate in a mobility scheme, to benefit from the knowledge and expertise of academic staff from higher education institutions in other European countries.
- To promote exchange of expertise and experience on pedagogical methods.
- To motivate students and staff to become mobile and to assist them in preparing a mobility period,
Among the personal benefits that students and staff can achieve by means of these objectives are:
- Students return more motivated, independent and confident;
- Learn a range of life-skills not taught in the lecture theatre;
- Access to a wider range of subject areas than in our region;
- Improvement of their language skills;
- Discovery of a different culture and gaining an international perspective.
By promoting staff mobility:
- Teachers learn and share new ideas;
- Explore new tools and technologies in their fields;
- Get to know first-hand the workings of another European educational system;
- Establish a good network of new international contacts.
The opportunity of making exchanges with other European Union centers began in 1993 and, since then, and through different programs such as Petra, Lengua, Leonardo or Sócrates, the EAO has kept this compromise. Some examples of these international projects are: Croydon College of London, Thomas Danby College of Leeds, L’IstitutoStataleD’Arte di Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy, ITCF FelicienRops in Namur (Belgium), Kouvola Region Voacational College in Finland, GoldenbergBerufskolleg of Cologne (Germany)
There have also been established collaboration agreements with national and international institutions from different countries such as Ecuador and Japan:
- Estampería Quiteña in Quito, Ecuador. The School of Art of Oviedo was invited to participate in the starting up of Estampería Quiteña by the National Engraving and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation, collaborating in the teaching of several engraving and printing courses for teachers, artists and students from Ecuador.
- Collaboration between INSHU Japanese paper craftsmen and Spanish engravers. An exchange project regarding activities, research and experimentation between teachers and students from four Spanish centers and INSHU Japanese Craftsmen AoyaWashikobo in Japan.
With the promotion and continuation of these activities we aim to provide the possibility to create collaboration projects that fit in the overall internationalization and modernization strategy of our institution. The EAO’s objective is to utilize current non-EU inter-institutional partnerships. Simultaneously, EU partnerships are further strengthened, the focus being in the quality of mobility and accessibility of mobility for all learners and staff. The School looks for extending links for international cooperation with foreign enterprises that could provide work-places for our students’ placement. This way competitiveness of our students can be ensured in the international labour market.
By participating in the programme, the School of Art of Oviedo expects to provide a more diversified and internationalized academic experience for students and academic staff to get a stronger position among other Spanish HEIs.
Our School is committed to:
- Increasing the number of Erasmus Bilateral Agreements
- Attracting more foreign students.
- Making Erasmus study periods and teaching assignment periods abroad everybody’s concern.
- Contributing to increase attainment levels to provide better graduates and researches in Europe.
- Aiming at innovation in the curricula and teaching methods to integrate all European students and to give them the chance of being educated in a country with cultural and historical assets.
- Increasing the number of European funding projects, trying to find alternative sources for financing student and staff mobility ensuring that support reaches potential students from lower income backgrounds through a better targeting of resources.
- Improving quality and relevance while expanding student numbers, widening participation to diverse groups of learners and to combat drop-out. A way of achieving this last point is to exploit the transformational benefits of ICTs and other new technologies to enrich teaching, improve learning experiences, support personalized learning, facilitate access through distance learning, and virtual mobility, streamline administration and create new opportunities for research.
The School of Art aims to improve and expand its activities in the areas of academic and student mobility, to introduce Erasmus work placements into the curriculum and to encourage and support curriculum development. Partnership and cooperation with business as a core activity encouraged through reward structures, incentives for multidisciplinary and cross-organisational cooperation, and the reduction of regulatory and administrative barriers to partnerships with other institutions and other public and private actors.
While implementing these directions the School reinforces the international image of the institution and seeks the name of an active quality institution in European higher education space. Moreover, these activities will contribute to the enhancement of overall attractiveness and competitiveness of Higher education in our region.
We want to help students to prepare professionally and socially for a global society.
EAO wants to maximize opportunities for student and teacher mobility and projects. It is important to sensitize constantly all members of personnel, so that internationalization becomes an integral part of education at EAO. Incoming lecturers add a further international component to the courses. EAO compromises to ensure the efficient recognition of credits gained abroad through effective quality assurance. Quality in mobility and projects is ensured by procedures for information, communication and reporting.
