TEHIC-Handbook_of_best_practices

5. Heritage interpretation and university education TEHIC Towards a European Heritage Interpretation Curriculum 74 be a technician or an expert too, someone who knows where to put microphones (and their features ) to grab a sound from each musician or orchestra with the same level of quality as if radio or TV listeners were present in a concert hall. The very same applies to heritage interpretation and interpreters: knowledge and skills translated to the compe- tencies they need to have are rooted equally in heritage related studies, including heritage interpretation theory and practice and the knowledge of the elements (phenomena) that they are addressing, such as archaeology, ethnography, urbanism, gender issues, natural history, and so on. The last is the main reason why tertiary education in heritage interpretation (the same is also valid for heritage studies, and/or museology 1 ) is much more complex and more difficult to organise. Since the very beginning this is an interdisciplinary process, and while interdisciplinarity is around us for decades, it is heavier to make breakthroughs foremost within any over-standardized and prescribed context (as academia and uni - versities often are), in other words it is more demanding to organise appropriate university accredited programmes. On the other hand, as we already explained, heritage interpretation is an interdisciplinary field of study, so it is not so surprising that starting 1 The next chapter gives a brief overview of the similarities with museology and what could be learned from experiences in museology concerning formal, tertiary education, in heritage interpretation. Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal. Picture by Julio Rodríguez Bisquert.