Higher education and competence provision in the museum sector

Museums face rapidly developing digital technologies and communication, increasingly diverse societies and audience groups, and economic restraints paired with accountability demands. This calls for new competence at museums. Yet, this area is poorly researched. This paper explores competence needs and competence management practices in museums as well as the role of higher education in relation to these. The paper is based on three separate empirical studies within a single research project undertaken 2016-2019: a desk overview of university curricula at Nordic universities, a study of four museums in Sweden based on interviews and document analysis, and questionnaire data regarding competence needs at Swedish county museums. The study shows that the museums studied state a need to develop competence relating to digital interaction, audience orientation, and museum economy. The study also shows that museums secure vital competence through internal and joint development work whereas universities can offer important research input.