• IUB Newsroom »
• Indiana University and The Australian National University agree to offer joint master's degree

Indiana University and The Australian National University agree to offer joint master's degree

• Nov. 10, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University and The Australian National University announced they will offer a dual-degree master's program in arts administration and museum and heritage studies. The announcement was made during a visit by ANU Vice-Chancellor Brian P. Schmidt, a Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist.

Beginning in fall 2017, students from both universities will have an opportunity to study two distinct but related areas of cultural administration.

The announcement is another example of growing cooperation and collaboration between IU and Australian National University. On Wednesday, Schmidt and members of an ANU faculty delegation met with their counterparts in several schools at IU Bloomington.

The largest example of collaboration between the two institutions, and one of IU’s most active global partnership activities, is the ANU-IU Pan Asia Institute, which is based in IU's School of Global and International Studies. Since 2010, the institute has brought together leading scholars and students from both institutions with mutual interests in Asia.

"Since the early 1990s, Indiana University and the Australian National University have had a strong partnership, which each of us has worked to strengthen and broaden in recent years," said IU President Michael A. McRobbie, who received his Ph.D. in logic in 1979 from ANU and an honorary doctorate in 2010. He was the university's alumnus of the year in 2015.

"Together, we share a deep commitment to education of the highest quality," McRobbie added. "Through initiatives like this, we demonstrate how providing such an education is one of the principal ways that we can deepen understanding and expand opportunities across hemispheres and improve the world for future generations."

The dual-degree opportunity will provide students at both institutions with international experiences and increased cultural awareness, as well as unique internship and study opportunities. During the program, admitted students will spend one academic year at either IU or ANU, followed by another academic year at the other university.

Australian National University is in the national capital, Canberra, which has the largest concentration of museums and other cultural institutions. These institutions will provide outstanding opportunities for IU students to study and become engaged with their work.

“Australian students will have the opportunity to augment their qualifications in museums and collections with a degree in arts administration, while students from Indiana will be able to add museum and heritage studies to their arts administration qualifications,” Schmidt said.

Graduates will receive both a Master of Arts Administration degree from the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs and a Master of Museum and Heritage Studies from the College of Arts and Social Sciences at Australian National University.

At ANU, students will study traditional curatorship and collections management, while being introduced to new areas impacting national and international cultural policy, such as social inclusion, citizenship and community engagement. At IU, students will receive knowledge and practical skills needed to be an effective arts advocate and a change agent, and core skills in business, marketing and management.

Other collaborations between IU and Australian National University include exchanges between ANU and IU's Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute and between the ANU National Security College and the IU Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research.

While visiting IU, Schmidt delivered a public lecture on his Nobel Prize-winning research into the accelerating universe.