TEHIC-Handbook_of_best_practices

5. Heritage interpretation and university education TEHIC Towards a European Heritage Interpretation Curriculum 86 degrees we could find courses, sometimes even modules, which incorporate or are com - pletely devoted to heritage interpretation, addressed to interests interconnected with the “core” fields of work or study. Interconnectivity of Degrees (bachelor’s or equivalent) vs. heritage interpretation related work: A s far as we are discussing competencies in heritage interpretation earned through courses or modules within different university programmes, we might say that the situation here is almost the same as with the master’s level. The only difference is that during bachelor studies students have less knowledge and experiences compared to the situation where they have already obtained such degree, so they face the concepts and theories of heritage interpretation better educated. Conclusion I n this article we tried to summarize how heritage interpretation is included in formal, university-based educational programmes and the reasons that explain the current situation. To have a better overview we analysed why having a clearly defined field of study and a well-developed body of knowledge is important. At the moment, heritage interpretation as a separate bachelor’s degree does not exist in practice, while as a master’s study programme we could find some, but still, these are rare examples. At the same time, different master’s programmes include heritage interpretation as a course or sometimes even as a module, the same as for bachelor’s programmes, although in this case this is even less frequent. According to the foregoing (including the part on the evolution of museology/muse - um studies) we may conclude that the situation of heritage interpretation as far as university-based curricula are concerned will remain quite the same for some time. Over time we will witness more heritage interpretation courses being incorporated mainly into master’s, but also to bachelor’s programmes and, simultaneously, there will be probably more attempts to organise heritage interpretation as an independent discipline at Level 7 (master’s or equivalent). In the near future it is hard to imagine any curricula leading to a bachelor’s degree in heritage interpretation because of the reasons explained in this article. At the PhD level it is already possible to draft a doctoral thesis having heritage interpretation as its main topic, although under PhD programmes as an official field of study it will be different. The situation is not expected to change much in the future. Overall, albeit the presence of