Facilities

Unique campus

The campus is located on the Antwerp ring road and was designed in the 1960s as a conservatoire by Leon Stynen a well known Belgian architect. The original campus included two large concert halls/theatres around a large courtyard. Over the last fifty years, this building has developed into a major international arts campus where music, theatre, dance and architecture are created, practised and studied.

The City of Antwerp, the second-largest in Belgium, is but a stone’s throw from Brussels, Paris, London and Amsterdam (app.2 hours). Owing to its world port, fashion, art, culture and history, Antwerp is one of Europe’s most attractive student cities.

• 5 in-house concert/theatre halls, 72 classrooms/ study rooms, a recording studio, a heritage library with a modern reading room, a physical therapist, a foyer and a grand café … all in the international cultural heart of Flanders, Antwerp.
• Rehearsal opportunities from 8 am to 11 pm + at the weekend between 12 noon and 6 pm. The possibility to make an online reservation of a rehearsal space.
• Easily accessible by train, car, bus, tram and city bikes. Parking in front of the building (free for 45 minutes), free parking on the street in the vicinity of the campus.
• A student restaurant with sandwiches, salad bar, homemade soup, warm meals, fruit, coffee, candy.

Having the following professional, leading ensembles and cultural institutions together on one campus ensures a vibrant artistic dynamic: Arts campus deSingel, I Solisti del Vento, Spiegel String Quartet, Radio 2, Eastman, Champ d’Action, Study centre for Flemish music, Youth and Music Antwerp, Sabbattini and the Flemish Architecture Institute.

Yearly renewal of collaborations with foreign training programmes and conservatories including deSingel, Toneelhuis, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, De Tijd, Opera Flanders, Eastman Dance Company, Piano’s Maene, Jazz Middelheim, VRT, International Opera Academy and Rataplan, among others.
Read more about our location and accessibility

Library

The extensive collection of our library comprises approximately 650,000 volumes and items and is the largest music library in Flanders. It goes without saying that the three training programmes are well represented in the collection. The library is initially a college library, but thanks to its exceptionally rich historical music collection, it became the first recognized heritage library in Flanders.
Go to the library

Expertise in physical therapy and prevention 

For many years the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp has developed an expertise in medical guidance for Dance and Music students.

It should come as no surprise that professional dancing presents challenges to dancers’ bodies. But musicians also have to deal with strain injuries more often than you think. They always occur at inopportune moments and in busy periods such as just before or during exams, concerts or performances. It is therefore very important that our students learn how to deal with the physical strain on their bodies.

An investigation into ‘the prevention and treatment of strain injuries’ among our dance and music students led to the adjustment of our training programmes, raising awareness, providing advice and specialized guidance of students.

In other words, forewarned is forearmed. And what if something happens to go wrong? Thanks to our in-house physical therapy centre, help is close at hand. You can even go there in your socks. Furthermore, you are monitored throughout your studies.

Reception and secretariat

The reception of the conservatoire will provide you with all the practical information. Please use all information channels and check the notice boards, the online learning environment Digitap (https://digitap.ap.be) and the screens at the reception before asking for information. The reception is open Mondays to Thursdays, during school weeks and exam periods from 8h till 20h and on Fridays from 8h till 18h. It is located on the first floor in Stynen West, at the top of the main staircase.
Go to the Organisation

The secretariat can be called upon for all matters concerning students. The offices are located on the ground floor, in Stynen Oost. The secretariat is open Mondays to Fridays, from 9h to 13h during school weeks and exam periods.

Production team

The production team is responsible for the artistic planning and support of productions. The team consists of specialists in sound, lighting, video and scenography. They provide students and teachers with advice and physically technical support. For example, they stand for your scores and the lights above the stage, the dance floor and the lighting design, the sound during your live performance. They welcome the audience and help you to compile a technical sheet for the performance you bring on location. They prepare your hall and stage, take care of the technical buildup of your performance and afterwards, they store everything neatly and receive the next one.
The production team is also responsible for the instruments of the Conservatoire.
Go to the Organisation

ICT and e-mail

There are computers with Internet access installed in the computer classroom, Stynen West (beside the student counselling room) and the alcove by the staff room (1st floor, Stynen Oost) and the reading room. The computers are free for use if no courses are going on. In the multimedia room, there are about ten computers available for students and externals. Large parts of the building are equipped with WIFI.
Through Earmaster students may practice aural training individually. The programme can be found on the desktop of all computers in the school.

As a student at Artesis Plantijn University College, you can buy a laptop tailored to your needs, for a discount price.

Via start.ap.be students get access to a range of online platforms:

• E-campus: login from home to the schools' network with all the available software
• Digitap: the electronic learning environment of Artesis Plantijn University College.
• Myarts: class schedules and reservations of study rooms
• AP-Webmail: Your AP-mail is considered to be an official means of communication between administration, teachers and students, so all important information will be sent via this e-mail address.
• iBamaflex: re-enrol, sign your re-enrollment (e-postbus), admission agreement (e-mailbox), consult your study credit, compose your study programme, consult your exam results,...
• Library and databases: all information about the use of the services of the libraries and access to the digital databases
• ICTpedia: manual and articles on the use of ICT
• ECTS: All official information on the various programmes as concerns subjects, teaching methods, final qualifications, credits, evaluation formats, examinations, etc. may be found in the digital study guide

Student counselling

Because the conservatoire offers tailor-made education, each student’s individual progress is closely monitored and auxiliary facilities are provided when required. Should you need assistance, speak with your teacher or consult a student counsellor. Through proactive and intensive counselling, the Royal Conservatoire aims at ensuring that all students choose the right programme, reducing student drop-out rates, and enhancing all students’ academic and artistic performance.

This counselling is characterized by:

• individual treatment;
• a better match between each student and his/her programme;
• inclusion of those individual characteristics and circumstances of each student, that may positively or negatively influence his/her performance. Programme advises and student counselling The Royal Conservatoire offers the following services, in programme advice and student counselling:
• assistance in composing the individual study programme and in applying for exemptions information sessions at the beginning of the academic year, clarifying programmes, projects, bachelor and master exams, etc.
• remedial teaching
• arranging relevant subjects according to different levels of progress
• counselling and individual coaching on efficient learning
• offering special facilities (see below)
• offering language coaching
• specific aid for foreign students and non-native speakers
• accessing physiotherapy and offering classes on physical awareness, to prevent and/or treat injuries
• referring students with personal problems to STUVA AP and other services
• trimester or semester evaluation with each student of his/her results
• offering programmes for independent learning
• assigning an ombudsperson for mediation in disputes between student’s and other interests
• providing graduates and alumni with information on employment, social statutes, etc.

Students may apply for special facilities for reasons of exceptional individual circumstances: statute of top sportsman/woman, functional limitations, artistic praxis (exceptional performances at home or abroad, tours, exhibitions), the statute of exceptional talent, a mandate (student representative in governing boards of AP University College, elected political mandate). © AP- Royal Conservatoire Antwerp – Student Handbook 2017-2018 23 Special facilities must be applied for yearly and will be granted for one academic year. Both students who for the first time consider themselves eligible for special facilities and students who were granted such facilities in previous years must contact the academic counsellor.

Student Services AP University College Antwerp and provides various facilities for students of AP University College. Contact the Student Services when you encounter financial and socials difficulties, for a student job, culture and sports facilities, help for housing,…

Students council and Sphinx

The conservatoire’s student council is the council that represents the interests of students of all disciplines. The council has a delegation in the School of Arts’ council and STUVO AP.

The SPHINX Students’ Party club brings together students from all sections of the conservatoire and organises parties, concerts, BBQ’s and the like. Sphinx also runs the White foyer. You can sign up with them as a bartender.
Sphinx on Facebook

Housing

Antwerp is a city with over 500,000 inhabitants. Its 48,000 students, spread across 30 campuses in and around the city, might therefore be less noticeable on the street than in Leuven or Ghent. But the 7,500 students in student accommodation, living among the other inhabitants of the city, form a unique community with and among the various other residents.

In the classic university area (around the city campus), you'll find the greatest concentration of student accommodation. But with campuses from the Courthouse in the South, to the North Castle, along National Street, Green City and Spoor Noord Park, you find yourself in various student housing districts in 't Stad. With a large concentration of students in Wilrijk, you will certainly find student accommodation to your liking.

Student housing in Antwerp is almost entirely held by the private market. Only the Institute for Tropical Medicine, UAntwerpen, Thomas More Antwerp and the Artesis Plantijn College have a small number of private homes for their students. In total, Antwerp has about 10,000 student rooms scattered in and around the city.

Antwerp is atypical in terms of student accommodation. Although only a minority of students actually have their accommodation here (because of the short distance and good connections, many students commute), a significant amount is invested by the city and educational institutions, together with the owners, in the quality of the accommodation and the letting contracts.

Kotweb is an initiative between the city of Antwerp, higher education institutions in Antwerp and GATE15, Antwerp's student portal. Together they strive for high-quality student accommodation in Antwerp and provide neutral information for both students and owners.
Go to kotweb