The University of Ballarat is calling on the Federal Government to improve support for regional arts through increased funding to regional arts education and training institutions. The University of Ballarat is one of the oldest, continuously running arts academies in the country with almost 600 students from across Victoria and other states enrolled in its Music Theatre, Acting, Fine Arts, Ceramics, and Graphic Design courses.

The University wants the Government to focus on five key areas:
• Art through Teaching
• Art through Research, Arts as Research, Research through Art
• Cultural Infrastructure
• Cultural Advocacy
• Art through Community Engagement

The University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor David Battersby, argues that:

'It is only through increased government support that the Arts Academy will be able to maintain its outstanding reputation as a leading studio-based arts school in regional Australia.'

Increased support for focused, regional arts education centres comes as renowned institutions such as the Victorian College of the Arts and the University of Southern Queensland launch new, integrated creative arts degrees in 2009; amalgamating a range of disciplines (dance, music, theatre etc) into a single ‘super-faculty’.