To an outside observer, the issues that have arisen in connection with Presidential Decree No. 85/2022 are somewhat confusing. He may wonder: what exactly are artists and art students demanding with their sit-ins and protests all over Greece? Which of their requests are a matter of political will, and which are rooted in long-standing pathologies that require patience?

Significantly, artists are asked to be included not in the state qualification level “Secondary Education”, as defined by the new presidential decree, but in the “Technological Education” level, which gives them more rights to wages (in organizations such as municipal workshops for creative classes, cultural centres, etc.) and does not hinder, even indirectly, as they worry, their educational mobility towards pursuing, for example, a teacher education or a master’s degree. The government notes that after the modernization of universities in 2003, membership in the level of “Technological education” for some areas is not possible, and that with its relevant legislative measures the issue of wages of artists is settled, while it agreed to ensure their admission, as well as to universities with qualifying exams.

The problem, which is widely considered to be unresolved for many years, is the key to the above classification of several art schools based on the eight levels of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), where 1 corresponds to the primary school diploma and 8 corresponds to the doctoral degree. Artists who have completed more than two years of study are not satisfied with being assigned to the two-year IEK level. The government, according to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has created working groups that will present legislative proposals by the end of March to establish a university-level public school for the performing arts in 2025, which will somewhat clarify the situation. In any case, a reasonable question arises: what roughly applies to the above in European countries?

It’s easier for actors in Germany, according to Philipp Harpen, artistic director of Berlin’s GRIPS Theatre. For example, the country’s public theater schools offer a bachelor’s degree, which can lead to postgraduate studies, for example, in the field of theater pedagogy. When asked about the employment of actors in the German public sector, Philipp Harpen explains that this is rare, as well-paid full-time jobs in theaters are preferable. “I know actors in Greece do other jobs to survive,” says Harpen, adding, “GRIPS is a private theater and because it is 70% funded by Berlin, it employs 13 full-time actors.”

Public theater schools in Germany offer a bachelor’s degree from which one can continue studies at the master’s level.

According to Joachim Salinger and Karine Oue, members of the Union of Performing Arts (SFA) and the National Union of Musicians (SNAM), France is more complex. Public three-year performing arts schools are graded at EQF level 4 for those who have just entered them (with a bachelor’s degree), and then at level 6 for those who graduate from them. “It’s really hard to graduate from high school,” says Joasim, explaining this feature, which actually only applies to those public schools that issue the so-called “National Higher Professional Diploma.” Music schools are ranked by state, which makes a difference: “If you’re high, you get more funding,” says Karin. As for the salary rights of graduates of art schools in the public sector, they mainly depend on the general level of their studies, since they can (and, one might say, should, if they have the necessary qualifications) add a pedagogical qualification to their art diploma. or some other degree.

“In addition to a few private theater schools run by popular actors, Poland mostly has the most reputable performing arts academies,” says Piotr Gruschinski, head of artistic programming at the New Theatre. Some academies also have annexes with departments of dance, puppetry, etc., and the duration of their studies is three years for a bachelor and two years for a master, which is quite common in Poland. “Here, people are not interested in the level of these schools, because they know that it is the highest possible,” says Piotr Gruschinski, adding that a master’s degree is a relatively common requirement for several positions in the Polish civil service. “Actors,” he adds, “are not excluded from the education system, as they were excluded from society in the Middle Ages.”

Finally, in England, where education is notoriously private, performing arts schools reached their peak in the 1990s and have since offered a bachelor’s degree, which is equivalent to EQF level 6 (which also applies after Brexit). Some reached the top level on their own, others collaborated with universities or merged with them. “Recognizing that arts education requires more teaching than regular liberal arts, the government is providing additional funding to some schools that is added to student fees,” explains Brandon Burns, Head of Applied and Community Theater at the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts (LIPA) . . He adds that there are few places in the British civil service for artists, and their salaries depend mainly on length of service rather than level of education – in particular, teaching positions require pedagogical competence. He had himself completed one of these schools before they were promoted, and when he went on to an academic career, he found that the value of this three-year education had been overlooked, “although the practical experience and critical thinking I gained there led to interest in my work.”

In the end, he solved the problem, but the feeling of moral and psychological degradation, according to him, was deep. “When I found myself teaching ‘normal’ educational subjects at universities,” he concludes, “I was struck by the lack of rigor and commitment compared to art courses, which were less ‘heavy’.