Mission
Amsterdam Summer University (AMSU), founded in 1989, aims to develop, provide and organise (international) education for students and professionals, in cooperation with universities and other educational institutions. AMSU’s full statutory objective can be read here.
Active European Citizenship
In many EU countries, citizenship education is part of the national school curriculum, yet, without paying attention to the European dimension of citizenship. And in spite of the growing focus on lifelong learning, compulsory citizenship education only covers a citizen’s school years. To fill this gap, we should look further, and involve the broader cultural, NGO and business sector in citizenship education.
We support the EU ambition to strengthen European Identity through Education and Culture (Social Summit Gothenburg 2017) by developing knowledge-based projects, seeking for innovative approaches in academic, citizenship education and arts & heritage practices.
Master of Business Administration in (European) Culture, Heritage and Citizenship
In 2016, AMSU and FMCC jointly with the Netherlands Business Academy (NLBA) launched an NVAO accredited Dutch MBA Culture, Heritage & Citizenship, targeting professionals in the heritage and culture sector who aim to be at the forefront of the necessary (re)positioning of arts, culture and heritage institutions in society. This interdisciplinary integrated programme combines business skills with knowledge from culture, European studies, material and immaterial heritage studies and citizenship education.
“The project added significant added value with developing the joint curriculum on citizenship, heritage and entrepreneurship and fostering the debate on this topic within Europe. The project might help innovate the sector as a whole.”
From the Erasmus+ Jury Report
From 2017-2020, in the framework of their successful Erasmus+ project ‘Towards an MBA European Culture, Heritage & Citizenship’, AMSU and other leading European academic and cultural institutions explored the interconnectivity of EU heritage, identity and EU citizenship and developed an interdisciplinary curriculum of short courses as well as a manual with a video report and created the ECHC Observatory. They included entrepreneurial skills in the curriculum to enable cultural professionals to bring their new insights and knowledge to a broader public. To the Commission’s motto ‘Strengthening European Identity through Culture and Education’ which they made their own, they added ‘and How to Manage It?’ The project received a high rating as well as the EU ‘Good Practice’ label.
AMSU and FMCC are working on further elaborating the successful format conceived within the Erasmus+ project, adding all parties their specific knowledge, exchanging tutors, scholars and trainers and including cases from the respective countries involved. In cooperation with NLBA, our Berlin partner the European Academy Berlin, and the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, AMSU and FMCC are developing an international series of short courses for professionals in the wider cultural and heritage field, providing ECTS, that potentially can lead to a European MBA in Culture, Heritage and Citizenship.
From Audience Participation to Citizenship Education
Arts institutions throughout Europe are confronted with a process in which the classical state-representing role that since the Restoration had been assigned to the arts is rapidly declining. Today, the institutions’ responsibility goes further: as providers of meanings, value orientations, and historical and social contexts their role is rather that of an intermediary between individual citizens and between civil society and the political class. Festivals and venues, including museums, are by their very nature natural meeting places for gaining depth and orientation with respect to the principles of the ‘value community’ that forms the basis of a democratic Europe.
The University of Maastricht, FMCC and AMSU, jointly with other cultural partners, are conducting research, in the Netherlands as well as in Europe, for the purpose of developing a method to measure whether and to what extent a cultural institution meaningfully contributes to socio-environmental action and is capable to spread European values including democracy and rule of law, and what conditions must be met to fulfil this role.