Just recently, NIDA achieved another major milestone in our long history of excellence when we were awarded self-accrediting authority by The Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA).
Over the last few years we have reinvigorated NIDA’s existing course offerings at both undergraduate and graduate level, creating a new suite of Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) courses and a growing number of Master of Fine Arts (MFA) courses, all of which were required to be submitted to TEQSA for accreditation. Our excellent track record in these course submissions and subsequent accreditations, and the teaching and learning environment we have created to support the courses, has led to this award to manage our own accreditation processes. This is a strong endorsement of the quality of NIDA courses and a positive recognition of the role the institution plays in the national education and training arena.
What this means for the future is that NIDA will be able to be more responsive to the rapidly changing world of arts and culture – be quicker and more flexible in creating courses that not only meet the needs of the industry but also lead innovation within it. Of course, all of our new courses will still go through a rigorous accreditation process but NIDA will manage that internally with input from both industry and academic partners. Currently, we are developing two new MFA courses that we are planning to offer for 2016, one in Voice and another in Design for Performance. Further information will be available later in August.
These two new courses will join our extremely successful MFA (Directing) and MFA (Writing for Performance) and a newly accredited MFA (Cultural Leadership) that will also have its inaugural year in 2016. The Cultural Leadership course will prepare mid-career professionals from a range of arts and culture backgrounds, not only the performing arts, to be the next generation of Australia’s creative innovators and cultural entrepreneurs. We are delighted that this new course will be chaired by one of Australia’s much admired and respected cultural leaders, and we are looking forward to sharing news of this appointment with you soon.
All the details for this new course will be up on the web site soon so that you can read more about this exciting addition to NIDA’s MFA program, including the Fellowships that are available funded by the Australian Government in recognition of the importance of this course to ensuring the creative and cultural future of Australia.
My thanks to all of the staff who have worked so hard to achieve so much over the last few years and to our extended NIDA family whose support in all our endeavours is very much appreciated.
Director/CEO
Photography by Lisa Maree Williams.
