Education
Message on Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA)
On Tuesday evening, the Executive Board announced a number of intended cost-saving measures in its online blog een aantal voorgenomen besluiten om kosten te besparen bekend gemaakt.
Unfortunately, these measures will also affect our faculty, particularly our institute ACPA. The Executive Board intends to discontinue the intake of extracurricular education for Leiden students at the University of the Arts (HdK) in The Hague, starting from the academic year 2026-2027. This means that from September 2026, no new students will be able to enroll in the Practicum Musicae music programme or the Practicum Artium visual arts programme.
Current students will, of course, be able to complete their programmes according to the existing regulations (students have the nominal time to graduate plus one additional year). This also applies to prospective students currently taking entrance exams at the Royal Conservatoire and the Royal Academy of Art, who will begin in September 2025.
The impact on collaboration at the PhD level is still unclear. The University will enter into discussions with the HdK regarding its future collaboration with ACPA. The guiding principles are that current PhD candidates (within the docARTES and PhDArts programmes and individual tracks) will be able to complete their trajectories, and that any new collaboration agreement must be cost-neutral for the university.
What happens next?
As mentioned, this is a proposed decision by the CvB. This means there will be a consultation process with the University Council. The timing of this consultation is not yet known.
The Faculty Board of the Faculty of Humanities and the management team of ACPA regret this proposed decision by the CvB. 'The collaboration between ACPA and the University of the Arts The Hague has yielded many wonderful results and created a unique cross-pollination between art and knowledge in research and education. We will be discussing how to continue the collaboration' according to Henk te Velde, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities.
We understand that this message has an impact on faculty members. Within the ACPA community — where art, research, and critical reflection converge — this message has a profound impact. We are doing our utmost to keep everyone well informed, with our immediate focus understandably directed at those most directly affected.