Music in UK Higher Education 2: Undergraduate and Postgraduate Taught Courses
Posted: June 3, 2023 Filed under: Academia, Culture, Higher Education, Music - General, Musical Education, Musicology | Tags: 1992 further and higher education act, conservatoires, ethnomusicology, hesa, master's degree loan scheme, music education, music higher education, music performance, music technology, musical theatre, musicology, popular music, post-1992 universities, postgraduate taught courses, private providers in music, russell group, Times Higher Education, ucas, undergraduate courses Leave a commentAs a follow-up to my previous post in this series, I now wanted to give details of the spread of undergraduate and postgraduate taught courses available in the UK Music Higher Education sector. These are figures for 2023-24 entry, as offered via the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) site, and collated earlier this calendar year. They can also be found in the handout for my lecture given at Oxford University in April, ‘Academic Music in the United Kingdom and the Dalliance with Practice’, the full text and slides of which (together with the handout) can be accessed here. Some may change for the upcoming cycle of admissions (for 2024-25 entry), but this gives a good indication of the current state of play.
What I am not at liberty to share here are the precise numbers enrolled on such courses, as this information comes from the Higher Education Standards Authority (HESA), for purely internal use by institutions. However, in my analysis at the end of this piece I will give some broad figures for which I previously obtained permission to use in an article for Times Higher Education. Suffice to say that numbers vary greatly – there are some with recent enrolments of fewer than 5 students, others in the 70s and 80s (three-figure sums on individual programmes are rare outside of the conservatoires, which collate students on many different instruments and voices on single programmes).
I am dividing up the sector as I have done elsewhere, into 1. Russell Group; 2. Mid-Ranking (a category which emerged after the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act, and the founding of the Russell Group in 1994 (arguably in response to the new act), originally comprising 17 institutions, but whose membership has changed considerably in the interim period); 3. Post-1992; 4. Colleges of Higher Education and others; 5. Conservatoires; 6. Private Providers.
As in all of these posts, the information contained therein is derived principally from that in the public domain. Furthermore, there is of course the potential for human error in collating it, and I welcome any corrections. I hope through these posts simply to make valuable information about the sector readily accessible to all with an interest, so that wider analyses or judgements on it can be better informed.
1. Russell Group
University of Oxford – BA Music (option of foundation year)
MSt Music (Musicology); MSt Music (Performance); MSt Music (Composition); MPhil Music (Musicology); MPhil Music (Composition); MPhil Music (Performance); also 1+1 option to combine MSt with an MBA. MPhil courses are taught and apparently sometimes taken as autonomous degrees.
University of Cambridge – BA Music (option of foundation year).
MPhil (Music) (taught).
University of Birmingham – BMus Music; joint courses with Modern Languages or Mathematics.
MA Music: Musicology; MA Music: Instrumental/Vocal Composition; MA Music: Electroacoustic Composition/Sonic Art; MA Music: Mixed Composition; MA Music: Performance pathway; MA Music: Performance Practice pathway; MA Music: Global Popular Musics; MA Music: Open Pathway with Performance; MA Music: Open Pathway without Performance
University of Bristol – BA Music; joint courses with various languages; MArts Music with Innovation (4 years).
MA Music; MA Composition of Music for Film and Television.
Cardiff University – BMus Music (option of study abroad year); BA Music (option of study abroad year); joint courses with languages, Mathematics, English.
MA Music.
Durham University – BA (Hons) Music (option of foundation year); joint course with Philosophy.
MA Music; MA Music and Science; MA Musicology; MA Ethnomusicology; MA Composition; MA Performance.
University of Edinburgh – BMus (Hon) Music (4 years); BSc Acoustics and Music Technology (4 years); joint course with Mathematics.
MMus Musicology (FT and PT); MMus Composition (FT and PT); MMus Musical Instrument Research; MScR Music; MSc Acoustics and Music Technology (FT and PT); MSc Sound Design.
University of Glasgow – BMus Music; MA Music (4 years); BEng/MEng Electronics with Music (4 or 5 years); joint courses with Archaeology; Classics, Economics; History, Mathematics, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Business/Management, Comparative Literature, Computing Science, English, History of Art, Scottish Literature, Theatre Studies, Film/Television Studies, etc. (all generally 4 year MA courses); various languages (5 years).
MMus Musicology; MA Historically Informed Performance Practice; MSc Music Industries; MSc Sound Design & Audiovisual Practice. Formerly an MMus Composition and Creative Practice.
King’s College, University of London – BMus Music.
MMus Music.
University of Leeds – BA Music; BA Music with Enterprise; BSc Music, Multimedia and Electronics; BMus Music (Performance) (4 years); Marts BA Music and Music Psychology (4 years); joint courses with English and Mathematics.
MA Applied Psychology of Music; MA Critical and Applied Musicology; MMus Critical and Experimental Composition; MA Music and Management; MMus Performance; MA Music and Wellbeing.
University of Liverpool – BA (Hons) Music; BA (Hons) Music and Popular Music; BA (Hons) Popular Music; BA (Hons) Music and Technology; BSc Mathematics and Music Technology; BA (Hons) Music and Game Design Studies; BA (Hons) Music Technology with Game Design Studies; BA (Hons) Popular Music and Game Design Studies; various joint courses.
MRes Music (formerly MMus Music); MMus Performance; MA Classical Music Industry (formerly MA Business of Classical Music); MA Music Industry Studies; MA Music and Audiovisual Media; MA The Beatles: Music Industry and Heritage.
University of Manchester – MusB Music; BA Film Studies and Music; BA Music and Drama; joint MusB/GRNCM course with Royal Northern College of Music (4 years).
Musm Music (Musicology) (FT and PT); Musm Music (Ethnomusicology) (FT and PT); Musm Composition (Instrumental and Vocal); Musm Composition (Electroacoustic Music & Interactive Media); Musm Performance Studies.
Newcastle University – BA (Hons) Music (option of year abroad); BA (Hons) Contemporary and Popular Music; BA (Hons) Folk and Traditional Music.
MMus Music; Mlitt Music; MA Creative Art Practice.
University of Nottingham – BA Music; BA Music and Music Technology; BA Music and Philosophy; option throughout of foundation year.
MRes Music.
Queen Mary, University of London – MSc Sound and Music Computing (FT and PT, with option of industry year).
Queen’s University Belfast – BMus Music; BA Music and Audio Production; BA Music and Sound Design; BSc Audio Engineering; BA Music Performance.
MRes Arts and Humanities.
University of Sheffield – BMus Music (option of foundation year); BMus Music (part-time) (6 years); joint courses with English, History, Philosophy, Languages, Korean Studies (latter two 4 years).
MA Musicology (FT and PT); MA Ethnomusicology (FT and PT); MA Composition; MA Music Performance Studies (FT and PT); MA Music Management (FT and PT); MA Psychology of Music (FT and PT); MA Music Psychology in Education; MA Transcultural and Traditional Music Studies (distance/online learning an option) (formerly MA Traditional and World Music; before that MA in Traditional Music of the British Isles and MA World Music Studies); MA Music Psychology in Education, Performance and Wellbeing (Distance Learning)
University of Southampton – BA Music (option of year abroad); BSc Acoustics with Music; joint courses with English, French, German (all 4 years); BA (Hons) Music and Business Management (option of year abroad); BEng (Hon) Acoustical Engineering (3 years, option of foundation year and/or industrial placement year, can go up to 5 years); MEng (Hon) Acoustical Engineering (4 years, option of foundation year and/or industrial placement year, can go up to 6 years).
MMus Music (Musicology); MMus Music (Composition); MMus Music (Performance); MMus Music (Education); MA International Music Management.
University of York – BA (Hons) Music; BA (Hons) Music and Sound Recording; BEng (Hons) Music Technology Systems (option of foundation year); MEng (Hons) Music Technology Systems (4 years, option of foundation year); BEng (Hons) Electronic Engineering with Music Technology Systems (option of foundation year); MEng (Hons) Electronic Engineering with Music Technology Systems (4 years, option of foundation year).
MA Musicology; MA Music: Composition; MA Music Performance: Historical Performance Practice; MA Music Performance: Piano Studies; MA Music Performance: Solo Voice Ensemble Singing; MA Music Performance: Vocal Studies: MA Music Production and Audio Cultures; MA Community Music; MA Music Education: Instrumental and Vocal Teaching; MA Music Education: Group Teaching and Leadership; MSc Audio and Music Technology (hosted by School of Physics, Engineering and Technology).
2. Mid-Ranking
University of Aberdeen – BMus (Hon) Music (4 years); BMus (Hon) Music Education (4 years); joint MA (Hons) courses with languages, History, Computing, Law, English.
MMus Music (FT or PT); MMus Vocal Music.
Bangor University – BA (Hons) Music; BMus (Hon) Music (option of foundation year for both); BA (Hons) Music with Theatre and Performance.
MA Music; MA Music with Education; MA Composition and Sonic Art; MA Performance.
Brunel University London – BA Music (option of placement year; option of part-time, 5-6 years); BA Music (Production) (option of placement year)
City, University of London – BMus (Hons) Music (now suspended, no longer on UCAS); BSc (Hons) Music, Sound and Technology; BA (Hons) Professional Dance and Musical Theatre; option of sandwich year or study abroad year.
MA Music by Research.
Goldsmiths College, University of London – BMus (Hon) Music (option of foundation year; option of part-time, 4-6 years); BMus Popular Music (option of part-time, up to 6 years) BMus(Hons)/BSc (Hons) Electronic Music, Computing and Technology (4 years; includes foundation or industry year); BA (Hons) Drama: Musical Theatre. Option of foundation year.
MA Music; MA Music (Musicology); MA Music (Contemporary Music Studies); MA Music (Ethnomusicology); MA Music (Popular Music Research); MA Music (Audiovisual Cultures); MA Arts Administration & Cultural Policy: Music Pathway; MA Creative & Cultural Entrepreneurship: Music Pathway; MA Musical Theatre; MMus Composition; MMus Performance & Related Studies; MMus Popular Music; MMus Creative Practice; MMus Sonic Arts; MSc Music, Mind and Brain.
University of Hull – BA (Hons) Music; BA (Hons) Music Production; BA (Hons) Music (Popular Music); BA (Hons) Music (Songwriting); BA (Hons) Music (Performance); BA (Hons) Music (Community & Education).
MMus Music (pathways in Musicology, Composition, Performance, Technology).
Keele University – BA (Hons) Music Production with a Foundation Year; BA (Hons) Music Production and Sound Design (sandwich); BA (Hons) Music Production and Sound Design with a Foundation Year (3.5 years); BA (Hons) Music Production and Psychology (sandwich); BA (Hons) Film Studies and Music Production (sandwich); BA (Hons) Media and Music Production (sandwich); BA (Hons) Business Management and Music Production (sandwich); BSc (Hons) Computer Science and Music Production (sandwich).
MRes Humanities; MA Creative Practice.
University of Kent – BA (Hons) Music, Performance and Production; BSc (Hons) Music Technology and Audio Production; BA (Hons) Music Business and Production
Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts (LIPA) – BA (Hons) Music; BA (Hons) Music (Songwriting & Performance); BA (Hons) Management of Music, Entertainment, Theatre & Events; BA (Hons) Acting (Musical Theatre); BA (Hons) Acting (Musicianship); BA (Hons) Sound Technology.
MA Music Industry Professional Management.
Open University – BA (Hons) Music; BA (Hons) Arts and Humanities (Music) (3 to 6 years, distance).
MA Music.
University of Reading – BA (Hons) Primary Education and Music.
MA Education (Music Education).
Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London – BA (Hons) Sound Design and Production
Royal Holloway, University of London –BMus (Hons) Music (option of foundation year); BA Music and Sound Design for Film, Television and Interactive Media (option of foundation year); joint courses with English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Philosophy, Economics, Political Studies, Mathematics, Modern Languages, Theatre, Physics.
MMus Music (formerly called MMus Advanced Musical Studies).
University of Salford – BA (Hons) Music: Creative Music Technology (option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Music: Performance (option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Music: Popular Music and Recording (option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Music Management and Creative Enterprise; BEng (Hons) Acoustical and Audio Engineering (option of foundation year); MEng (Hons) Acoustical and Audio Engineering (4 or 5 years); BEng (Hon) Sound Engineering and Production (option of professional experience year).
MA Music (formerly with named pathways); MA Contemporary Performance Practice; MA Socially Engaged Arts Practice; MSc Audio Production; MSc Acoustics (latter two hosted by School of Science, Engineering and the Environment).
SOAS, University of London – multiple joint BA (Hons) courses with music; no single music course.
MA Music (Ethnomusicology) (formerly MA Ethnomusicology; MA Music in Development).
University of St Andrews – MLitt Sacred Music.
University of Surrey – BMus (Hon) Music (option of sandwich); BMus (Hon) Creative Music Technology; BMus (Hons)/BSc (Hons) Music and Sound Recording (Tonmeister) (4 years; sandwich); BA (Hons) Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Actor Musician; BSc (Hons) Mathematics with Music.
MMus Music (formerly with various named pathways – Composition, Performance, Creative Practice); MA/MFA Musical Theatre.
University of Sussex – BA (Hons) Music; BA (Hons) Music Technology.
MA Music and Sonic Media.
University of Ulster – BMus (Hon) Music; joint courses with Irish, Drama, Education, History; BSc (Hons) Creative Audio. MMus Creative Musicianship (FT or PT) (pathways in Performance Studies; Composition and Creative Audio; Music and Communities).
3. Post-1992 Institutions
Anglia Ruskin University – BA (Hons) Electronic Music Production; BA (Hons) Music Performance; BA (Hons) Music Production; BSc (Hons) Audio & Music Technology; BA (Hons) Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Music and Sound Production. All available as 3 or 4 years, with either foundation or placement year.
MA Music Therapy.
Bath Spa University – BA (Hons) Music (option of placement year); BA (Hons) Professional Music: Performance and Production; BA (Hons) Commercial Music (option of placement year); BA (Hons) Creative Music Technology (option of placement year); BA (Hons) Creative Music Technology (Games and Interactive Media) (option of placement year); BA (Hons) Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Drama (Musical Theatre) (option of Professional Placement Year).
MA Commercial Music; MA Composition; MA Music Performance; MA Sound Design; MA Sound (Arts); MA Sound (Production); MMus Songwriting
University of Bedfordshire – BA (Hons) Musical Theatre (optional qualifier of Film Acting); BA (Hons) Radio and Audio (options of foundation or placement year); BA (Hons) Music Technology Top-up (1 year)
Birmingham City University – BA (Hons) Music Business with Professional Placement Year; BSc (Hons) Music Technology with Professional Placement Year; BSc (Hons) Sound Engineering and Production (option of foundation or professional placement year). (Also courses offered by Royal Birmingham Conservatoire).
Bishop Grosseteste University – BA (Hons) Music and Musicianship.
University of Bolton – BA (Hons) Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Musical Theatre (top-up) (1 year).
Bournemouth University – BA (Hons) Music and Sound Production (sandwich).
University of Brighton – BA (Hons) Digital Music and Sound Arts; BA (Hons) Music Business and Media.
MA Digital Music and Sound Arts.
Buckinghamshire New University – BA (Hons) Music Production and Performance (option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Music Business (option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Music Production and Business (option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Audio and Music Production (option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Electronic Music Production (option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Musical Theatre (option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Professional Dance and Musical Theatre (Dancebox Studios and Theatre Works); BA (Hons) Songwriting (option of foundation year); BSc (Hons) Sound Design (option of foundation year).
MA Music and Audio Production; MA Music Business.
Canterbury Christ Church University – BA (Hons) Music (option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Commercial Music; BA (Hons) Creative Music Production and Technology (option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Musical Theatre.
MMus Master of Music.
University of Central Lancashire – BA (Hons) Music Production (option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Music Production and Performance (option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Electronic Music Production and Performance; BSc (Hons) Live Audio Engineering and Music Production; BSc (Hons) Entrepreneurial Audio Production; BA (Hons) Music Theatre.
MA Music; MA Music Industry Management and Promotion.
University of Chester – BA (Hons) Music Production and Performance; BA (Hons) Popular Music Performance; BA (Hons) Music Production; BA (Hons) Music Journalism (option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Musical Theatre Performance.
MA Popular Music.
University of Chichester – BA (Hons) Music; BA (Hons) Music Performance; BA (Hons) Music Performance (Film Acting); BA (Hons) Commercial Music; BA (Hons) Musical Theatre (many sub-options); BA (Hons) Musical Theatre Performance; BA (Hons) Musical Theatre and Arts Development; BMus (Hons) Performance (4 years); BMus (Hons) Instrumental Teaching (4 years); BMus (Hons) Jazz Performance (4 years); BMus (Hons) Vocal Performance (4 years); BA (Hons) Jazz and Cabaret Performance; BMus (Hons) Vocal Teaching (4 years); MusB (Hons) Orchestral Performance (4 years); Ba (Hons) Song Writing and Cabaret Performance; BA (Hons) Music with Jazz Studies; BA (Hons) Music with Teaching; BA (Hons) Music with Workshop Leadership; BA (Hons) Music with Arts Development; BA (Hons) Audio Production and Music Technologies.
MA Music Performance; MA Music Teaching; MA Composition for Film, TV and Games (formerly MA Music Industry Innovation and Enterprise; MA International Music Business); and through University of the Creative Arts – MA/MSc International Music Management; MMus Composition for Screen (formerly MMus Music Performance through LCCM).
University Centre Colchester at Colchester Institute – BA (Hons) Popular Music: Performance and Production; BA (Hons) Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Music for Performance and Teaching.
Coventry University – BA (Hons) Popular Music Performance and Songwriting.
University of the Creative Arts (Kent/Surrey) – BA (Hons) Music & Sound Production (optional foundation year, taking to 4 years; optional professional practice year, taking to 5 years,4 without foundation year); BA/BSc (Hons) Music Business & Management (optional foundation year and professional practice year, as for Music & Sound Production); BMus (Hons) Composition for Screen (same options of foundation/professional practice year).
De Montfort University – BSc (Hons) Music Production; BA (Hons) Music Technology; BA (Hons) Performance in Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Performance Level 6 Top-up (1 year).
MA Music, Technology and Innovation.
University of Derby – BA (Hons) Popular Music (optional foundation year); BSc (Hons) Music Production (optional foundation year); BSc (hons) Sound, Light and Live Event Engineering.
MA Music Production; MA Music Therapy; MSc Audio Engineering (hosted by College of Science and Engineering).
Edge Hill University – BA (Hons) Music Production; BA (Hons) Musical Theatre.
MA Collaborative Performance Practice.
Edinburgh Napier University – BA (Hons) Music; BSc (Hons) Sound Design (4 years).
MA Music; MSc Sound Design.
Falmouth University – BA (Hons) Music; BA (Hons) Popular Music; BA (Hons) Creative Music Technology; BA (Hons) Creative Music Production (online, 2 years); BA (Hons) Professional Music (Performance); BA (Hons) Professional Music (Songwriting); BA (Hons) Professional Music (Electronic Music); BA (Hons) Professional Music (Production); BA (Hons) Professional Music (Business); BA (Hons) Career Musician (3 years; 2 years online option); BA (Hons) Music Production & Sound Engineering; BA (Hons) Electronic Music & Business (Online, 2 years); BA (Hons) Electronic Music Production (optional online, 2 years); BA (Hons) Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Music & Sound for Film & TV; BA (Hons) Music Business; BSc (Hons) Live Sound; BA (Hons) Songwriting & Music Performance (optional online, 2 years) BA (Hons) Sound Design (3 or 4 year options); BA (Hons) Game Development: Audio (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Music Production & Sound Engineering (Level 6 Top-up) (1 year); BA (Hons) Electronic Music Production (Level 6 Top-Up) (1 year).
MA Music Business.
University of Gloucestershire – BA (Hons) Popular Music; BA (Hons) Sound and Music Production; BA (Hons) Music Placement (optional placement year).
MSc Sound and Music Production; MA by Research Music and Sound.
Glyndŵr University, Wrexham – BSc (Hons) Music and Sound Technology (optional foundation year); BSc (Hons) Professional Sound and Video
University of Greenwich – BA (Hons) Professional Dance and Musical Theatre.
University Centre Grimsby – BA (Hons) Music Production; BA (Hons) Popular Music Performance.
University of Hertfordshire – BA/BSc Music Production; BSc (Hons) Music and Sound Design Technology; BSc (Hons) Music Composition and Technology for Film and Games (sandwich); BSc (Hons) Songwriting & Music Production; BSc (Hons) Audio Recording & Production; BA/BSc Live Sound and Lighting Technology (sandwich).
MA Creative Music Production; MSc Music and Sound for Film and Games; MSc Audio Engineering.
University of the Highlands and Islands – BA (Hons) Applied Music (4 years); BA (Hons) Popular Music (4 years); BA (Hons) Music Business (4 years); BA (Hons) Gaelic and Traditional Music (4 years); BSc (Hons) Audio Engineering (4 years).
MMus Music; MA Music and the Environment.
University of Huddersfield – BMus (Hon) Music (sandwich); BMus (Hon) Music Technology and Composition: BMus (Hon) Music Performance (sandwich); BMus (Hons) Popular Music; BSc (Hons) Sound Engineering and Music Production (sandwich); BA (Hons) Creative Music Production; BSc (Hons) Sound Engineering and Audio Technology (sandwich); BA (Hons) Music and Sound for Screen; BA (Hons) Music Journalism.
MMus Musicology; MMus Music Performance; MMus Popular Music Practice; MA Creative Music Production; MSc Music Technology and Sound Production.
Kingston University – BA (Hons) Music Technology.
MA Music; MA Music Education; MMus Music Performance; MMus Composing for Film and Television.
Leeds Arts University – BMus (Hons) Popular Music Performance.
Leeds Beckett University – BSc (Hons) Music Technology; BA (Hons) Music Production; BA (Hons) Music Performance and Production; BA (Hons) Music Industries Management; BSc (Hons) Audio Engineering.
MA Popular Music & Culture; MA Music Production; MA Music for the Moving Image; MA Sonic Arts; MA Sound Design; MSc Sound & Music for Interactive Games; MSc Audio & Acoustics.
University of Lincoln – BA (Hons) Music; BA (Hons) Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Sound and Music Production.
MRes Performing Arts (Drama, Dance, Music).
Liverpool Hope University – BA (Hons) Music (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Music Production and Musical Theatre (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Music and Music Production (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Dance and Musical Theatre (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Dance and Music; numerous joint courses with Music Production or Musical Theatre.
MA Contemporary Performance.
Liverpool John Moores University – BA (Hons) Musical Theatre Practice; BSc (Hons) Audio and Music Production (sandwich).
MA Musical Theatre; MA Audio and Video Forensics.
University of East London – BA (Hons) Music Performance and Production (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Music Journalism (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Music Technology and Production (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Sound and Music for Theatre (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Sound and Music for Media (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Sound and Music for Games (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Musical Theatre.
MA/MFA Sound and Music for Games; MA/MFA Sound and Music for Media; MA/MFA Sound and Music for Performance; MA/MFA Sound and Music for Production; MA/MFA Sound and Music for Theatre; MA Contemporary Performance Practices.
University of West London* – BMus (Hon) Music Performance (optional foundation year); BMus Popular Music Performance (optional foundation year); BMus Composition (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Songwriting; BA (Hons) Music Technology (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Electronic Music Production (optional foundation year); BSc (Hons) Sound Engineering (optional foundation year); BSc (Hons) Audio Software Engineering (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Recording, Mixing and Production (optional foundation year); BMus (Hons) Performance and Recording (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Musical Theatre (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Musical Theatre Performance; BA (Hons) Sound and Music for Gaming (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Popular Music and Worship; BA (Hons) Hip Hop Performance and Production (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Recording, Mixing and Production (option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Song Writing and Cabaret Performance; BA (Hons) Music Management; BMus (Hon) Performance and Music Management (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Music Technology (Top-Up) (1 year); BA (Hons) International Music Business – Top Up (1 year).
MA Advanced Music Technology; MA Music Industry Management and Artist Development; MA Music and Performing Arts Education; MA Record Production; MMus Performance (Classical, Jazz, Popular); MMus Composition; MMus Electronic Music Composition; MMus Composition for Film and Television.
London Metropolitan University – BSc Music Technology and Production (FT with sandwich, 4 years; or PT, 6 years); BA (Hons) Music Business (FT 3 years; or PT option, including foundation year – 4 years) (4 years).
London South Bank University – BA (Hons) Music and Sound Design.
University of the Arts London – BA (Hons) Music Production; BA (Hons) Sound Arts.
MA Sound Arts.
Manchester Metropolitan University – BA (Hons) Music and Sound Design (optional foundation year).
UCEN Manchester – BA (Hons) Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Music Production and Composition; BA (Hons) Vocal Studies and Performance.
Middlesex University – BA (Hons) Music; BA (Hons) Music Business and Arts Management.
MA Music Business; MA Arts Management; MA Classical Music Business.
University of Northampton – BA (Hons) Popular Music (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Music Production (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Music Production (top-up) (1 year); BA (Hons) Popular Music (top-up) (1 year).
Northumbria University – BA (Hons) Music (optional with foundation and sandwich year, 5 years).
MRes Arts.
Nottingham Trent University – BA (Hons) Music Production; BA (Hons) Music Performance; BSc (Hons) Sound Engineering and Audio Production; BSc (Hons) Audio and Music Technology; BA (Hons) Music Business.
MA Music Business; MA Music Business (London); MSc Creative Technologies.
Oxford Brookes University – BA (Hons) Music.
MA Music.
University of Plymouth – BA (Hons) Music (sandwich); BA (Hons) Musical Theatre (optional foundation); BSc (Hons) Audio and Music Technology.
MA Music; MA Music Production; ResM Computer Music.
Plymouth Marjon University (= University of St Mark & St John) – BA (Hons) Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Music Business.
Arts University Plymouth – BA (Hons) Sound Arts.
University of Portsmouth – BSc (Hons) Music Technology (sandwich); BA (Hons) Musical Theatre (sandwich); BA (Hons) Creative Music Technology (Top-Up) (1 year).
MA/MSc Creative Technologies.
Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh – MSc Music Therapy.
Ravensbourne University London – BA (Hons) Music and Sound Design.
University of Roehampton – MA Music Therapy.
University Centre Rotherham – BA (Hons) Popular Music Performance and Production.
Solent University (Southampton) – BA (Hons) Popular Music Performance and Production; BMus (Hons)/BSc (Hons) Popular Music Performance (optional foundation year; multiple courses on different sites); BSc (Hons) Popular Music Production; BA (Hons) Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Music Business; BA (Hons) Digital Music (optional foundation year).
Staffordshire University – BA (Hons) Music Production (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Musical Theatre; BSc (Hons) Sound Design (optional foundation year).
MA/MSc Modern Music Practices.
University of Sunderland – BA (Hons) Modern Music Industries; BA (Hons) Music (Top-up) (2 years).
Teesside University – BA (Hons) Music Production; BA (Hons) Musical Theatre (Top-up) (1 year).
University of South Wales – BA (Hons) Popular and Commercial Music; BA (Hons) Music Producing; BA (Hons) Music Business.
University of Wales Trinity Saint David – BA Musical Theatre (2 years); BA Perfformio (Performance) (2 years); BMus Vocal Performance; BA Creative Music Technology; BA (Hons) Theatr Gerddorol (Musical Theatre) (2 years); BMus (Hons) Vocal Performance; BA Commercial Music Producer (Top Up).
MA Advanced Vocal Studies; MA Performance (Repetiteur and Accompaniment) (both at Wales Academy of Voice & Dramatic Arts); MA Sound (Swansea College of Art); MA Commercial Music Producer (including Online Blended option); MA Music Business (including Online Blended option) (latter two at Tileyard Education, London).
University of the West of England – BSc (Hons) Creative Music Technology (sandwich); BSc (Hons) Audio and Music Technology (sandwich).
MA Music Therapy.
University of the West of Scotland – BSc (Hons) Music Technology (4 years); BA (Hons) Commercial Music (4 years).
MA Music (Songwriting/Sound Production/Industries).
University of Westminster – BA (Hons) Music Production, Performance and Business (optional foundation year).
MA Audio Production (FT and PT); MA Music Business Management (FT and PT); MA Live Music Management (FT and PT); MRes Creative Practice (FT and PT).
University of Winchester – BA (Hons) Popular Music: Production and Performance; BA (Hons) Music Production, Performance and Business with Foundation; BA (Hons) Musical Theatre.
University of Wolverhampton – MA Creative Practice and Performance (Music); MA Musical Theater Performance; MSc Audio and Creative Technology (formerly had MA courses in Music and Music Technology).
University of Worcester – BA (Hons) Musical Theatre.
York St John University – BA (Hons) Music; BA (Hons) Music Production; BSc (Hons) Music Technology; BA (Hons) Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Music Production & Music Business; BA (Hons) Music: Community Music.
MA Musical Composition; MA Music Production; MA Community Music; MA Musical Leadership.
University Centre at the Heart of Yorkshire Education Group – BA (Hons) Actor Musician.
4. Others – Colleges of Higher Education, etc.
Bedford College Group – BA (Hons) Music Technology (Top Up) (1 year).
Greater Brighton Metropolitan College – BA (Hons) Music Performance; BA (Hons) Music Production; BA (Hons) Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Music Business and Management.
Burnley College – BA (Hons) Music Production and Performance (optional foundation, but still 3 years).
University Centre Calderdale College –BA (Hons) Creative Arts with Music Production (Top-up) (1 year).
Cardiff and Vale College – BMus Music Performance and Recording (Top-up) (1 year); BA (Hons) Electronic Music Production (Top-up) (1 year).
dBs Institute of Sound & Digital Technologies – MA Electronic Music Production; MA Music Production & Sound Engineering; MA Innovation in Sound (all awarded by Falmouth University).
New College Durham – BA (Hons) Popular Music (Top-Up) (1 year).
Edinburgh College of Art – MPhil Art (has music element).
Glasgow School of Art – MDes Sound for the Moving Image.
South Gloucestershire and Stroud College – BA (Hons) Musical Theatre.
Hereford College of Arts –BA (Hons) Popular Music (Top Up) (1 year).
Hull College – BA (Hons) Music (Popular Performance/Creative Music Production) Top-up (1 year); BA Performance (Musical Theatre) (Top-up) (1 year).
Lincoln College – BA (Hons) Musical Instrument Craft (various sub-options).
City of Liverpool College University Centre – BA (Hons) Performing Arts (Acting/Dance/Musical Theatre) (Top-Up) (1 year); BA (Hons) Music (Popular/Production) (Top-Up) (1 year).
Loughborough College – BA (Hons) Contemporary Music, Performance and Production.
Middlesbrough College – BSc (Hons) Sound and Music Technology.
Morley College – BA (Hons) Music (Performance or Production) (Top Up) (1 year).
National Film and Television School – MA Composing for Film and Television; MA Sound Design for Film and Television
Newcastle College University Centre – BA (Hons) Music Production; BA (Hons) Musical Theatre (Top-up) (1 year).
City College Plymouth – BA (Hons) Music Practitioner (Top-Up).
Rose Bruford College – BA (Hons) Audio Production (Technology/Music/Sound Design); BA (Hons) Actor Musicianship.
MA/MFA Actor Musicianship.
Sheffield College – BA (Hons) Music Performance and Production (Top-up) (1 year).
ThinkSpace Education – MA Professional Media Composition; MA Orchestration for Film, Games & Television; MA Sound Design for Video Games; MA Composing for Video Games; MA International Music Business; MA Songwriting & Music Production; MFA Songwriting, Production and Music Business; MFA Media Composition & Orchestration; MFA Video Game Composition and Orchestration; MFA Video Game and Media Composition; MFA Video Game Music and Audio.
West Suffolk College – BA (Hons) Commercial Music Production (part-time, 6 years).
East Sussex College – BA (Hons) Music Production and Creative Recording (Top-up) (1 year).
5. Conservatoires
Only degree courses, and only in music, are listed here.
Royal College of Music (RCM) – BMus (Hon) Music (4 years).
MPerf Performance; MComp Composition; MMus Performance; MMus Composition; MSc Performance Science; Med Education.
Royal Academy of Music (RAM), University of London – BMus (Hon) Music (4 years); BMus (Hon) Composition (4 years); BMus (Hon) Jazz (4 years).
MA Performance or Composition; MA Musical Theatre; MMus Performance or Composition.
Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD) – BMus (Hons) Music.
MA Music Therapy; MA Opera Making and Writing; MMus/MComp in Composition; MMus/Mperf in Performance (Artist/Orchestral Pathways).
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance – BMus (Hons) Music Performance (4 years; also optional foundation year); BMus (Hons) Music Performance Jazz Studies (4 years); BA (Hons) Music Performance and Industry; BA (Hons) Musical Theatre Performance.
MA Music; MA Music Education and Performance; MMus Music.
Leeds Conservatoire – BA (Hons) Music (Classical) (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Music (Classical with Jazz); BA (Hons) Music (Classical with Popular); BA (Hons) Music (Classical with Folk, Roots and Blues); BA (Hons) (Classical with Production); BA (Hons) Music (Jazz) (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Music (Jazz with Classical); BA (Hons) Music (Jazz with Folk, Roots and Blues); BA (Hons) Music (Jazz with Popular); BA (Hons) Music (Jazz with Production); BA(Hons) Music (Popular Music) (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Music (Popular with Classical); BA (Hons) Music (Popular with Jazz); BA (Hons) Music (Popular with Folk, Roots and Blues); BA (Hons) Music (Popular with Production);BA (Hons) Music (Folk, Roots and Blues); BA (Hons) Music (Folk, Roots and Blues with Classical); BA (Hons) Music (Folk, Roots and Blues with Jazz); BA (Hons) Music (Folk, Roots and Blues with Popular); BA (Hons) Music (Folk, Roots and Blues with Production); BA (Hons) Music Production; BA (Hons) Music (Production with Classical); BA Music (Production with Folk, Roots and Blues); BA (Hons) Music (Production with Jazz); BA (Hons) Music (Production with Popular); BA (Hons) Music (Songwriting) (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Music (Film Music) (optional foundation year); BA (Hons) Actor Musician; BA (Hons) Music (Business); BA (Hons) Music Production (Top-up) (1 year); BA (Hons) Popular Music (Top-up) (1 year).
MA Music; MA Musical Direction; MA Musical Theatre Company; MA Musical Theatre Creatives
Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) – BMus (Hons) Music; BMus (Hons) Popular Music.
MMus Music; MPerf Performance.
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (RBC) – BMus (Hons) Performance (4 years); BMus (Hons) Composition (4 years); BMus (Hons) Jazz (4 years); BMus (Hons) Music Technology (4 years).
MMus Choral Composition; MMus Composition; MMus Instrumental Performance; MMus Jazz; MA Musicology; MA/MFA Professional Voice Practice; MMus Orchestral Performance (Strings); MMus Vocal Performance; MMus Brass Band Conducting; MMus Orchestral Conducting; MMus Experimental Performance; MMus Music Technology.
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) – BMus (Hons) Performance (4 years); BMus (Hons) Composition (4 years); BMus (Hons) Joint Principal Study (4 years); BMus (Hons) Jazz (4 years); BMus (Hons) Traditional Music (4 years); BMus (Hons) Traditional Music – Piping (4 years); BA Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Contemporary Performance Practice (4 years); BEd (Hons) Music (4 years).
MA Psychology in the Arts (Music); MMus/MA Repetiteurship; MMus Keyboard; MMus/MA (no qualifier); MMus/MA Strings; MMUs Opera; MMus/MA Brass; MMus/MA Composition; MMus/MA Guitar and Harp; MMus/MA Piano for Dance; MMus/MA Jazz; MMus/MA Timpani and Percussion; MMus/MA Traditional Music; MMus/MA Piano Accompaniment; MMus/MA Chamber Music; MMus/MA Woodwind; MMus/MA Conducting; MMus/MA Vocal Performance; MMus Performance and Pedagogy; MA Musical Theatre – Performance; MA Musical Theatre – Musical Directing; MEd Learning and Teaching in the Arts.
Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama (RWCMD) – BMus (Hons) Music (4 years); BMus (Hons) Jazz (4 years); BA (Hons) Musical Theatre.
MMus Music Performance; MMus Music Performance (Intensive); MMus Orchestral Performance; MMus Orchestral Performance (Intensive); MA Advanced Opera Performance; MMus Chamber Music Performance; MMus Multi-Instrument Woodwind Performance; MMus Collaborative Piano; MMus Orchestral Conducting; MMus Brass Band Conducting; MMus Choral Conducting; MA Repetiteur Studies; MMus Historical Performance; MA Opera 360: The Opera Industry (FT & PT); MA Opera Directing; MA Jazz; MMus Composition; MMus Composition (Intensive); MMus Composer-Performer; MMus Collaborative Creative Practice; MA Musical Theatre; MA Stage & Event Management; MA Arts Management (FT & PT).
6. Private Providers
Only those offering courses via UCAS for 2023-24 entry are listed here. Some others such as the dBS Institute are directly linked with other providers (in that case Falmouth), so are not listed here.
Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) (Guildford, also with site in London) – BA (Hons) Commercial Songwriting (2 or 3 years, including option of 3 years including foundation year); BA (Hons) Music Composition (2 or 3 years, including option of 3 years including foundation year); BA (Hons) Creative Musicianship ( – Guitar/Bass/Drums/Keys/Other Instruments) (3 years); BA (Hons) Creative Entrepreneurship – Composition/Performance/Songwriting (2 or 3 years); BA (Hons) Music Production (2 or 3 years); BA (Hons) Live Production & Technical Arts (2 or 3 years); BA (Hons) Management & Entrepreneurship (3 years); BA (Hons) Rap & MC (2 or 3 years); BA (Hons) Songwriting (3 years); BA (Hons) Game-Development: Art/Audio/Design/Programming (2 years); MCCI Commercial Songwriting (3 years); MCCI Music Composition (3 years); MCCI Creative Entrepreneurship – Composition/Performance/Songwriting/Production (2 or 3 years); MCCI Music Production (3 years); MCCI Live Production & Technical Arts (3 years); MCCI Management and Entrepreneurship (3 years); MCCI Rap & MC (3 years). Degrees accredited by Guildford College, Middlesex University, University of Surrey.
MA/MSc Creative Industries Futures (via Middlesex University).
British and Irish Modern Music Institute (BIMM) University (multiple branches in London, Brighton, Bristol, Birmingham, also in Dublin and Hamburg) – BA (Hons) Electronic Music Production; BA (Hons) Music Production; BA (Hons) Music Production & Music Business; BA (Hons) Sound Production; BMus (Hon) Popular Music Performance; BMus (Hon) Popular Music Performance & Songwriting; BA (Hons) Popular Music Performance and Music Business; BA (Hons) Popular Music Performance and Music Production; BA (Hons) Music Business; BA (Hons) Music Business & Event Management; BA (Hons) Music Marketing, Media and Communication; BA (Hons) Popular Music Performance & Event Management; BA (Hons) Musical Theatre and Dance; BMus (Hons) Songwriting; BA (Hons) Songwriting & Music Business; BA (Hons) Songwriting & Music Production. Degree-awarding powers since 2019; university status since 2022.
MA Popular Music Practice (available at seven locations, including London); MA Learning and Teaching in the Creative Industries (available only at Brighton and Bristol).
Futureworks, Manchester – BA (Hons) Music Production; BSc (Hons) Audio Engineering and Production. Appears to have own degree-awarding powers.
Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (London) – BMus (Hon) Popular Music Performance; BMus (Hon) Popular Music Performance (Bass/Guitar/Drums/Keys/Vocals); BA (Hons) Creative Musicianship; BA (Hons) Creative Musicianship (Bass/Guitar/Drums/Keys/Vocals/Other Instruments); BA (Hons) Songwriting; BA (Hons) Creative Music Production; BA (Hons) Music Production for Film, TV and Games; BA (Hons) Music Production and Entrepreneurship; BA (Hons) Audio Engineering and Production (3 years); BA (Hons) Digital Marketing (and Content Creation) (3 years); BA (Hons) Digital Marketing and Music Management; BA (Hons) Music Business and Entrepreneurship. Appears to have own degree-awarding powers.
MA Songwriting; MA Music Performance; MA Creative Music Production; MA Music Business; MMus Popular Music Performance.
Liverpool Media Academy (LMA) (also has branch in London) – BA (Hons) Musical Theatre; BA (Hons) Music Performance & Industry. Degrees accredited by Staffordshire and Northampton Universities.
London College of Creative Media (LCCM) – BA (Hons) Music Business Management; BMus (Hons) Contemporary Music Performance and Production – Bass, Drums, Guitar, Piano/Keys, Sax, Trumpet, Vocals, Production, Songwriting; BMus (Hons) Commercial Music Technology; BMus (Hons) Composition for Film, Games, and other Media. Degrees accredited by Open University and Falmouth University.
MMus Contemporary Music Production; MMus Contemporary Music Performance.
Point Blank Music School (London, also branches in Los Angeles, Ibiza, Mumbai, Hangzhou) – BA (Hons) Music Production & Sound Engineering (2 years or 3 years; or 3 or 4 with Foundation Year) (also option of 3 years online); BA (Hons) Music Industry Management (2 year, option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Music Production and Sound Engineering (2 or 3 years, option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Music Production & DJ Performance (2 years or 3 years; or 3 or 4 with Foundation Year); BA (Hons) Music Production and Vocal Performance (2 or 3 years; option of foundation year); BA (Hons) Music Industry Management (2 or 3 years, option of foundation year). Degrees accredited by Middlesex University.
SAE Institute (international franchise, originally in Sydney, Australia, British branches in London, Liverpool, Glasgow) – BA/BSc (Hons) Audio Production (2 years). Degrees accredited by Hertfordshire University, formerly Middlesex University.
Waterbear College of Music, Brighton and Sheffield – BA (Hons) Professional Music (Performance); BA (Hons) Professional Music (Production); BA (Hons) Professional Music (Songwriting).
MA Music Performance, Production & Business; MA Music Industry Enterprise (in conjunction with Falmouth University).
Undergraduate courses
There are five principal categories of undergraduate music degrees:
- Plain Music (generally with no other qualifier in the title).
- Music Technology/Production/etc: this term is an umbrella one for most courses focused upon technology.
- Musical Theatre.
- Popular/Commercial Music.
- Music Performance.
There are also other degrees in Music Journalism, Film/Media Music, Music and Gaming and Music Business/Industry, but none of these has as many students across the sector as the above (though Music Business/Industry may be growing).
Russell Group institutions are overwhelmingly centred around plain ‘Music’ courses (offered at every institution), with just a few also offering Popular or Tech courses. Mid-ranking institutions, with the exception of Keele, Kent and SOAS, all offer plain ‘Music’ courses, but are divided between around half centred on these (Aberdeen; Bangor; Brunel; Royal Holloway; Ulster), and others offering music tech or (in three cases) popular music. The post-1992s, only 13 of which over plain ‘Music’ courses (Bath Spa; Canterbury Christ Church; Chichester; Edinburgh Napier; Falmouth; Huddersfield; Lincoln; Liverpool Hope; Middlesex; Northumbria; Oxford Brookes; Plymouth; York St John) are overwhelmingly focused on practice-based subjects, in particular music technology and musical theatre, but also music performance; the Colleges of HE and private providers are similar. The conservatoires are different types of institutions, much more strongly focused around performance.
As regards degree titles, traditionally (from the first major growth of the sector after 1945) there were two: the BMus (Bachelor of Music) and the BA (Bachelor of Arts) in Music. Overall, the BMus had a greater concentration on technical aspects of music, including composition in particular, while the BA placed greater emphasis on reading of literature, and in particular did not grant performance a central role (the role of performance in undergraduate degrees has long been complicated). However, the meanings of the titles morphed considerably in subsequent years, so that today it is often difficult to read much meaning into them except at those institutions which offer both, where the traditional type of divide tends still to apply. BSc degrees became available from the 1970s, usually involving some degree of technology, but were still relatively unusual as late as 1990. These grew considerably in number in the intervening period, though it is relatively rare for departments only to offer them. A small few music technology degrees stressing engineering are also called BEng.
On the basis of figures from 2020-21 (an unusual year, for sure, because of the COVID pandemic, but figures do not differ significantly from those in the few years leading up to it), the balance of students on these is as follows:
University Departments (not Conservatoires)
Music: 1381 (19.5%)
Tech: 2214 (31.2%)
Popular Music: 773 (10.9%)
Musical Theatre: 1558 (22%)
Performance: 453 (6.4%)
Other: 389 (5.4%)
Conservatoires
Music: 30 (1.6%)
Tech: 137 (7.4%)
Popular Music: 260 (14%)
Musical Theatre: 115 (6.2%)
Performance: 1000 (54%)
Other: 273 (14.7%)
All
Music: 1411 (15.8%)
Tech: 2351 (26.3%)
Popular Music: 1033 (11.6%)
Musical Theatre: 1673 (18.7%)
Performance: 1453 (16.3%)
Business/Management: 269 (3%)
Other: 393 (3%)
It is therefore clear that plain ‘Music’ courses are very far from dominating the sector. These, together with those Performance courses offered at conservatoires, are the only ones which would afford a central place for classical music, or music history, analysis, repertoire and in some cases the study of non-Western musics, though most also have significant modules in composition and performance, and also frequently popular music, music technology, music business are available as modular options (more on this in a future post on curricula). However, popular music courses gain significantly fewer students than plain ‘Music’ ones, though this should be offset by the fact that popular music is often a principal concern on music technology courses as well.
Postgraduate taught courses
I am not at present at liberty to share information on the breakdown of student numbers on these courses, so my analysis is of necessity briefer. But it can suffice to say that there has been a significant net increase in PGT students since the introduction of the 2016 Master’s Degree Loan Scheme, enabling PGT students to access student loans for the first time.
The types of courses frequently offered break down into a wider range of categories, as follows (these are not in order of student numbers but type):
(i) Music/Musicology, offered by almost all RG, most mid-ranking, 8 post-92s, 3 conservatoires.
(ii) Ethnomusicology, offered by 3 RGs, 2 mid-ranking.
(iii) Composition/Electroacoustic Composition/Sound Art, offered by 9 RGs, 5 mid-ranking, 6 post-92s, 1 College of HE, 8 conservatoires, and BIMM.
(iv) Performance, offered by 9 RGs, 7 mid-ranking, 10 post-92s, 8 conservatoires, 4 private providers.
(v) Music Technology/Production, offered by 2 RGs, 2 mid-ranking, 18 post-92s, 1 College of HE, 1 conservatoire, 4 private providers.
(vi) Sound/Sound Design, offered by 2 RGs, 5 post-92s, 1 College of HE.
(vii) Popular/Commercial Music, offered by 2 RGs, 1 mid-ranking, 4 post-92s, 2 conservatoires.
(viii) Music/Sound for Film/Video/Games, offered by 3 RGs, 1 mid-ranking, 7 post-92s, 3 Colleges of HE.
(ix) Musical Theatre, offered by 3 mid-ranking, 3 post-92s, 1 College of HE, 4 conservatoires.
(x) Music Industry/Business/Management, offered by 5 RGs, 2 mid-ranking, 10 post-92s, 1 College of HE, 1 conservatoire, 2 private providers.
(xi) Music Psychology, offered by 2 RGs, 1 mid-ranking, 1 conservatoire.
(xii) Music Therapy, offered by 5 post-92s, 1 conservatoire.
(xiii) Music Education, offered by 3 RGs, 2 mid-ranking, 3 post-92s, 3 conservatoires, and BIMM.
Other more occasional courses exist in Historically-Informed Performance/Performance Practice; Music and Science; Musical Instrument Research; Creative Practice (including Music): Arts/Arts and Humanities/Humanities (including Music); Sound and Music Computing/Computer Music; Audio Engineering; Contemporary Music Studies; Socially Engaged Arts Practice; Community Music; Acoustics; Sacred Music; Music and the Environment; Modern Music Practices; Opera Making and Writing; Creative Industries Futures.
The titles MA and MMus are very common for postgraduate taught degrees, though the content can be very heterogenous. By the 1970s the majority of universities offering UG courses also offered PGT ones, but by the 1980s study of advertising for such courses demonstrates how hard individual institutions worked to distinguish theirs from others. The title MSc usually reserved for courses focused on technology and/or computing, but occasionally for Music Business/Industry/Management or Music Therapy. There is no obvious consistency of usage of this term. York may have been the first to offer an MA/MSc in Music Technology and the University of Huddersfield was an earlier pioneer in an MA in Performance or Composition. By the year 2000, still only a small few post-92 universities were offering PGT courses, and the number had not increased that significantly by 2010. However, this has now increased following the introduction of the Master’s Degree Loan Scheme in 2016, as mentioned earlier. A detailed quantitative study commissioned by the government in 2019 to consider the effect of the new scheme on PGT recruitment as a whole (in all subjects) found a 36% increase in overall numbers, though little data to suggest significant changes in the demographic profiles of students.
Nick Gibb is right about many things to do with music education, but good intentions need to be paid for
Posted: January 13, 2019 Filed under: Music - General, Musical Education | Tags: incorporated society of musicians, michael rosen, music education, music notation, nick gibb 1 CommentThe Schools Minister, Nick Gibb, published an article on Friday, in the Times (‘Forget Spotify: I want every child to leave primary school able to read music’, The Times, 11 January 2019). This is behind a paywall, but Gibb has also posted the article on his blog so all can read it.
He describes being introduced to classical music at primary school, through various pieces designed in part for children by Britten, Saint-Saëns and Prokofiev, then singing works of Handel, Parry and Allegri in choir, but realises rightly that fewer children are benefiting from similar experiences, and with that in mind worked with various institutions to devise a recommended playlist. Gibb also absolutely notes that classical music is certainly not the only tradition or the only one to teach, also drawing attention to jazz and folk, music from Senegalian and Indian traditions, and the power of mass choral singing. He goes on to say:
I want every child to leave primary school able to read music, understanding sharps and flats, to have an understanding of the history of music, as well as having had the opportunity to sing and to play a musical instrument.
Noting that little was affected in terms of music education by 2012 reforms to the national curriculum, he expresses the following worry:
I am concerned that too few pupils are benefiting from a sufficiently rigorous approach to it. Like so many things, music requires, patience, dedication and application. No one ever woke up one morning playing the guitar like Eric Clapton.
I could not agree more with all the above sentiments, and deplore the fact that focused and rigorous musical education, or exposure to music over and above what might be encountered on an everyday basis (which Gibb frames in terms of ‘Spotify playlists’), are increasingly unavailable to all except a few, mostly those who are privately educated. And of course, as those who followed the 2017 public debates on musical notation, absolutely agree with him that every child should be able to leave primary school being able to read music (except of course those who have special learning needs or difficulties, but the same could be said about any type of reading). For more on this, see the response to the 2017 article by Charlotte C. Gill on music notation, and my follow-up article in The Conversation (‘The insidious class divide in music teaching’, 17 May 2017).
Gibb continues by noting a new panel of musicians and educationalists who he has tasked to draw up a new musical curriculum for primary schools. Details of this panel can be found here, an impressive list of individuals. He also notes a £1.33 million funding boost to music education hubs.
All of this is good and springs from the best intentions. But there is more to it than that. There are wider issues of cuts to music in secondary schools, not least because of pressure on pupils to take subjects in the EBacc. Nonetheless, however important this subject is, Gibb is speaking here about primary schools, so I will stick to those. A facile tweet from children’s author Michael Rosen asked ‘has he [Gibb] consulted with music teachers on this matter? Is Gibb an expert on music education? Can he read music? What has it done for him?’ No Schools Minister will ever be an expert on all areas of education, and Gibb has made clear that he is consulting a wide range of individuals involved in music education. Whether he himself can or cannot read music I do not know (I would suspect so on the basis of some of the choral repertoire he mentions having sung), but that is irrelevant as to whether he wants others to be able to learn it.
A group of musicians published a letter in the Observer in May 2018 expressing huge concern about the decline in instrumental music teaching in primary schools. In response the Department of Education noted that they were investing almost £500m in music and arts education programmes between 2016 and 2020. £300m of this was for music education hubs, and £120m for the Music and Dance Scheme, which enables some to attend specialist music schools. This amounted in 2018/19 to £75 million of ring-fenced funding to the hubs. But as detailed in an important survey from the Incorporated Society of Musicians (ISM), wider cuts to their budgets greatly limit schools’ ability to buy in services or replace and repair instruments, while excessive pressure for accountability in other subjects, especially maths and English, lead to music’s being marginalised within the curriculum. Many respondents noted the decline in the number of staff in school music departments, or how music teaching is allocated to other types of teachers, or conversely music teachers are having to teach outside their subject area. Others commented on how the hubs remain short of cash, and instrumental tuition is often offered just for one year, in the context of schools in which little else goes on musically. Whole Class Ensemble Teaching (WCET), has been found increasingly to be available for less than one term, while there are few routes to progress beyond this to further musical education after WCET has ended. Access to singing teaching was also found to have declined.
Gibb’s intentions are good, but clearly more is needed. If he is serious about his wishes, money needs to be found and ring-fenced for dedicated music teachers within primary schools, over and above what is provided by the hubs. Furthermore, there should be proper tests to ensure such teachers have the fundamental music skills, including notational and aural skills, which alas are no longer necessarily guaranteed even by possession of a music degree. Teachers who cannot themselves read music are obviously unable to teach children to do so. I hope very much the committee will take account of the concerns of organisations such as the ISM and others who have been looking at these issues for some time, and in light of their recommendations Gibb or any successor will match their intentions with the appropriate resources and provision of time within the curriculum.
The Tory Government distrusts the arts and humanities – but what about academics?
Posted: February 18, 2018 Filed under: Academia, Culture, Higher Education, History, Literature, Music - General, Musical Education, Musicology, Theatre | Tags: 1992 reform of British higher education, arts and humanities, brexit, cultural studies, Damian Hinds, ebacc, ethnomusicology, Guillaume de Machaut, Madonna, Matthew Arnold, music, music education, Patrick Johnston, popular music studies, russell group, Sam Gyimah, STEM, Terry Dicks, terry eagleton, Tony Banks, universities 2 CommentsThe cover story of today’s Sunday Times indicates a plan on the part of the UK government to reduce fees in higher education.
According to the story:
He [Education Secretary Damian Hinds] revealed that future fees would be determined by “a combination of three things: the cost [to the university] to put it on, the benefit to the student and the benefit to our country and our economy”.
Ministers expect this to lead to dramatic cuts in fees for arts and social science courses, which universities have expanded because they are the cheapest to run and make them the most money.
Under the plans, universities will be told to offer: more two-year degrees; sandwich courses, where students spend time in the workplace; and “commuter courses”, where they live at home to cut costs.
Various television interviews today with Hinds and also with Universities Minister Sam Gyimah have done nothing to dispel such suggestions, though precise details are vague. A statement from the Prime Minister is promised tomorrow, though it is unclear how much has yet been decided, how much will be the outcome of a review.
There are various outcomes I could envisage, few of them likely to be positive for those working in the arts and humanities in British universities. The items on the following list are not mutually exclusive.
- A re-introduction of the pre-1992 divide (though ministers will be at pains to stress how different it is), whereby the sector will once again divide into a series of universities in the traditional sense (probably the Russell Group and a handful of others) and others offering more vocational and technical courses (most of those which became universities after 1992 and maybe some others as well). This will be spun as entailing a new level of support for technical education, with the second group of institutions intended to be akin to German Technische Universitäten. The latter institutions will receive little or no support for research, and most lecturers will be on teaching-only contracts. The government money thus saved will be used to finance a cut in some tuition fees.
- A push for many degrees, especially in the arts and humanities, to be able to be undertaken in two years, delivered by a mixture of lecturers on teaching-only contracts (whose increased teaching burden would leave little time for any research), casual academic staff without permanent contracts, and postgraduates.
- A limitation of practically all government research money to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subjects, with nothing for the arts and the humanities, though the social sciences may keep some.
- A variant of 3, in which all or the bulk of arts and humanities research money is only available to those in Russell Group institutions.
- The introduction of a direct link between ’employability’ (as measured by the Teaching Excellence Framework) and the level of fees which an institution is allowed to set.
- An insistence that the majority of academic jobs be teaching only. Having a research position will then become one of the most sought-after things in HE.
Most of these measures, or some variants thereof, will be designed to enable the government to cut fees without having to pledge any more money for HE. I believe strongly in the abolition of tuition fees and re-installment of maintenance grants for all, but realise at present this is unlikely to be on the cards (even with a Labour government which pledges to abolish fees, but will be hit by the dire economic consequences of a Brexit they are doing little to stop).
The outlook for the arts is bleak, and especially for degrees in performing arts such as music, theatre, dance, or various types of spatial arts, which include a practical element requiring significant resources for appropriate facilities. Already, as a result of the introduction of the Ebacc (English Baccalaureate), there was a five-fold fall in the numbers of pupils taking arts subjects at secondary school in 2015-16, while other evidence points to a special fall in take-up and provision of music. When combined with other likely problems relating both to recruitment and access to research funding following Brexit, this will put various music and other arts departments in a highly precarious position, as some already are.
The arguments for the employment benefits of arts and humanities degrees have been rehearsed often, as for example in response to politicians such as former Conservative Education Secretary Nicky Morgan dismissing arts and humanities subjects and urging pupils at school to concentrate on STEM if they want a better career. I do not wish to dwell on these further here, not because I do not believe them to be true, but because I resent the debate always being framed in such narrowly utilitarian terms. Rather, I want to ask why many – including some in academia – have lost such faith in the value of the study of the arts and humanities as an end in itself, and are submitting to terms of reference which will always place them at a disadvantage?
In many continental European universities, there are battles to save rare subjects in the face of declining student numbers, but at least some measures are being taken to prevent these from extinction. It would be nice to imagine that the UK government (or the opposition) were backing similar measures, but evidence of that is in short supply. I wonder in how many other developed countries one would find a vice-chancellor of a major university declaring the irrelevance of the study of sixth-century history, as the late Patrick Johnston, of Queen’s University Belfast, did in 2016. I refuse to accept that the study of early medieval (or ancient) history is somehow automatically less ‘relevant’ than modern history – or that the study of Guillaume de Machaut is less ‘relevant’ than that of Madonna. Any measure of the relevance of history in proportion to the temporal remoteness of the period in question ultimately undermines the case for the study of history at all. There has also been, in the UK, a marked decline in foreign language degrees, no doubt linked to a decline in their study in schools. It is dispiriting and more than a little arrogant when those in Britain no longer feel it important to engage with any of the world’s many other languages.
There have been, and will be for a long time, heated debates about the value to individuals and society as a whole of various types of art, and especially regarding their purported humanising or civilising potential. Overwhelming evidence exists from the fascist era that individuals with a love for and firm schooling in high culture could still commit crimes against humanity. At the very least, this renders automatic assumptions of such culture’s civilising potential impossible to maintain. But one need not subscribe to the views of Matthew Arnold (themselves more complex and nuanced than sometimes credited) in order to believe that a society with only minimal support for and education in the arts and humanities to be one which is deeply impoverished.
So what should be included in teaching and research of these disciplines? I would argue that at the very least, students should be encouraged to explore not only the forms of culture that they would encounter anyhow, but also those of different times and places, not to mention less familiar or commercially successful genres. Such culture can benefit from being examined in its social, historical, geographical, political, ideological contexts, without in any way neglecting its specifics and technical details, which are not merely the by-product of such contexts. The relationships between different cultural forms (between music and theatre, between theatre and performance art, between literature and film, just to give a tiny few obvious examples) are also greatly important, as are the relationships between culture and the intellectual environment of its time/place/social milieu, the societal functions of various cultural forms, the nature and demographics of those who partake of such culture and their responses (i.e. the study of reception), the economic situation of cultural production, the role of changing technology, and much else.
Yet so often I encounter the dismissal of many of these things, including by some academics, in ways which mirror government ideologies, despite being presented in somewhat different language. In the case of my own field, music: government emphasis on STEM subjects is mirrored in increasing emphasis on technological skills in music over other varieties of musical study and musicianship (and in the case of research, favour bestowed upon anything which has a contemporary technological dimension), as if musical study is somehow more acceptable when it has some of the veneer of science. Positions become available for the teaching of commercial music, or functional music for another commercial medium (such as popular film or video games), more frequently than those requiring expertise in a historical field, or in musical cultures outside of the Western world. I was recently informed by one Professor of Theatre that historical study of that discipline has all but disappeared except in Russell Group institutions (though am interested to hear of any evidence to the contrary).
I accept that some of this is pragmatic, borne of desperate attempts to recruit and maintain students who have less and less of a foundation in music and the arts at primary and secondary school than ever. But I am dismayed at how many embrace rather than tolerate this situation. There was a time when the study of popular music (see this debate from two years ago on this blog) could reasonably be argued to inject increased diversity into rather rigid curricula. At best, this can entail the study of many different popular musics from various times and places, critical interrogation of the concept of the ‘popular’, consideration of various social contexts, means of production and distribution, not to mention relationship to other cultural traditions, languages, and so on. But when it means limiting a good deal of musical study to Anglo-American popular music of a restricted period (essentially that music which is already familiar to students), then the net effect for diversity is negative rather than positive. Ethnomusicologists (see another debate on this blog) eager to decry not only relatively traditional approaches to teaching Western art music, but also older approaches to their own disciplines which involved Western scholars spending considerable amounts of time in remote places, absorbing as best as they can the language, cultural practices, and so on, might reflect upon how precarious their own discipline might become if there is less of a place or welcoming environment for those interested in such things. The more musical study becomes simply about the application of a selection of methods derived from sociology or cultural anthropology to fields of musical activity close to home, the less reason there will be for institutions to support music as a separate field of study. The sociology and anthropology of music are vitally important sub-disciplines with multiple intellectual trajectories of their own, but if those engaged with them are housed solely in sociology and anthropology departments, they will then be in direct competition for students, funding and positions with the rest of those fields.
More widely, in many fields of cultural studies, especially the populist varieties which, as I have argued in some recent papers, are rooted in the work of the Birmingham School and especially that of Stuart Hall, commercial utility is equated with relevance, musical engagement is viewed as just another consumer activity, and research can amount either to conducting focus groups, or dressing up familiar informal chat about popular culture with a modicum of jargon. Any deeper critical engagement with popular taste, the latter empirically measured at one particular time and place, is dismissed as elitism. This amounts in many ways to an eschewal of arts education itself, and can lead to rather patronising ways of patting students and ‘the masses’ on the back simply for having the tastes they do, rather than encouraging them to venture beyond their comfort zones.
I do believe, after working in HE for 15 years (in multiple institutions), that most students who study arts subjects at university do so after having read some literature, heard or played some music, seen and acted in some theatre, looked at or produced some visual art, etc., and care about these and want to know more. They often seek help and guidance to navigate an overwhelming range of available culture, and also learn technical skills so as to be able to engage with this more incisively. Certainly not all will become equally drawn to all the manifold areas of study, methods, or emphases involved, nor could any realistically study all in detail in the limited time available for an undergraduate degree (for which I think we should be looking towards four- rather than two-year degrees, ideally) which is why we offer some degree of elective options. But I do believe it is important, indeed vital, that educators attempt to broaden students’ horizons, encourage them to explore beyond what they already know, and also consider the familiar from unfamiliar angles. Those educators, with years of experience in their own fields, are in a position to facilitate all of this. Not through spoon-feeding, teaching-to-test, or rote learning, but introducing what to students will be a plurality new ideas, new cultural forms, new contexts, and encouraging them to consider these critically.
I also realise this type of humanistic approach may not be attractive or feasible to some potential students, and this situation is unlikely to change without wider changes in primary and secondary education. With this in mind, I would not rule out questions as to whether the removal of the pre-1992 divide has been wholly beneficial, and whether a need to maintain the pretence that all degree courses are roughly equal just entails a race to the bottom for all. But technical colleges are not universities in the traditional sense, and it benefits nowhere to pretend otherwise, as argued well by Marxist scholar Terry Eagleton:
Just as there cannot be a pub without alcohol, so there cannot be a university without the humanities. If history, philosophy and so on vanish from academic life, what they leave in their wake may be a technical training facility or corporate research institute. But it will not be a university in the classical sense of the term, and it would be deceptive to call it one.
Neither, however, can there be a university in the full sense of the word when the humanities exist in isolation from other disciplines. The quickest way of devaluing these subjects – short of disposing of them altogether – is to reduce them to an agreeable bonus. Real men study law and engineering, while ideas and values are for sissies. The humanities should constitute the core of any university worth the name. The study of history and philosophy, accompanied by some acquaintance with art and literature, should be for lawyers and engineers as well as for those who study in arts faculties.
I would not like to live in a narrow, utilitarian, technocratic society in which there is little wider societal interest in other times and places, in all the questions which the humanities raise, or one in which such interest and knowledge is limited to the upper echelons of society. Nor a society in which art has no meaning other than as a form of commercial entertainment, as some right-wing politicians in the UK have been urging for many years (see the notorious 1990 Westminster speech by then-Tory MP Terry Dicks, and the spirited and witty response by then-Labour MP Tony Banks). And I doubt that this type of society would be attractive to many, especially not those working in arts and humanities fields. But if many of them are not prepared to defend the ideals of the arts and humanities, acting instead as advocates for narrowly conceived notions of social ‘relevance’, defined in terms of being contemporary, technocratic, and generally restricted to the place and milieu of them and/or their students, what are the chances of any meaningful opposition to governments who would happily slash most of these?
Universities, the arts and the humanities, are not just means to ends but valuable in their own right. Cultures and cultural histories are far from unblemished things, to say the least, but it would still be negligent in the extreme to let them fade into oblivion. And allowing students to retreat into the comfort zone of the already-familiar is damaging to global citizenship. In some ways, those who advocate such an approach to education are already doing the Brexiteers’ work for them.
An inspiring defence of the teaching of Western classical music and musical literacy
Posted: April 8, 2017 Filed under: Music - General, Musical Education, Musicology | Tags: charlotte c gill, estelle r. jorgensen, music education, musical literacy 14 CommentsIn the wake of the huge response to the article on music notation and literacy by Charlotte C. Gill in The Guardian, and encountering a certain amount of qualified support for her position amongst some academics who are more broadly antipathetic towards a Western classical tradition or at least a central place for it in Western music curricula, I recently read the following inspiring passage from an essay by Estelle R. Jorgensen, ‘Western Classical Music and General Education’, Philosophy of Music Education Review, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Fall 2003), pp. 130-140, which I wanted to share here. Note that this is emphatically not a denigration of other traditions and practices, nor an assertion of superiority, but part of a wider argument for rejuvenating the teaching of something which is increasingly marginalised in various musical education, according to the author; she says ‘it seems now to have acquired (in some quarters at least) a negative connotation as a bastion of elitism and privilege. Instead, popular musics (with a nod to musics of other culture) have pride of place in much elementary and secondary music education and in many university and college offerings designed for students whose principal fields of study lie outside music.’
Why should Western classical music be advocated by music education policy makers? Among the possible reasons, the term “Western classical music” is a misnomer. It is really a multi-cultural and international tradition forged by musicians around the world who brought their various individual and cultural perspectives to a music that grew up in Europe but that from its infancy drew upon African and Near Eastern roots. Its widespread influence as one of the great musical traditions does not make it necessarily better than others but does make it worthy of study. A music that is known so widely, has captured the interest and participation of so many musicians and their audiences internationally, has such a rich repertory, and represents so many cultures strikes me as a human endeavor of inherent interest and worth.
Western classical music is also one of the ancient classical traditions in the world. Its long history can constitute a bridge to better understanding the particular contributions and detractions of Western civilization. This music constitutes a rich heritage of instruments, compositions, theories, and performers. It sometimes instances brilliant and deeply moving creations that manifest human genius at work. There is, as Jane Roland Martin puts it, a “stock” of cultural makings and doings that support, enrich, challenge, and defy social and cultural conventions. Musical artifacts include written compositions that are brought to life in performance, archaic instruments that are preserved, copied, restored, and otherwise kept for posterity, and musical rituals that are described, recorded, and recreated in a host of ways. As Neil Postman notes, knowing about the eighteenth century is particularly important at a time when mediated culture focuses on the present. Knowing the past traditions of a particular place enables one to connect with those who have gone before just as one relates to people in other places. Viewed this way, Western classical music is a precious heritage that links Westerners to their past just as it links them to other world cultures.
This music is an organic, living thing. Although informed and influenced by Christianity, especially Roman Catholicism, it is also rooted in the musics of Eastern Orthodoxy and Judaism, and in the secular musics of Middle Eastern and Northern African countries in which Islam took hold. Its mythos, influenced originally by Greek polytheism, later acquired a monotheistic Judeo-Christian perspective that is now being transformed as the tradition increasingly finds its home in Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, affected again by polytheistic and other religious and mythical world views. It has also absorbed a host of other musics that have likewise become classical in their own right. For example, jazz is in the midst of becoming a classical tradition and many of its elements have been included in the Western classical mainstream. Likewise, rock, country, and gospel are acquiring classic properties such as notation, instrumentation, and self- reflexivity, and becoming incorporated into and interconnected with the Western classical tradition.
Musical notation is one of its singular achievements. Literacy provides a way of recording the nuances of performance, intellectualizing music, propagating it widely and disparately in time and space, and quickly learning new pieces of music. Becoming literate in this tradition is essential. Since the music is notated, one can read a score and hear how it should sound and quickly catch on to what is happening even if one is unacquainted with the particular piece. Remaining illiterate in this tradition leaves one deprived of knowledge essential to full participation in a society that regards itself as Western. This deprivation, whether intentional or not, is arguably racist and classist when it fails to ensure that all people irrespective of their background have the opportunity to be musically literate. Recognizing the multiplicity of musical cultures in today’s societies suggests expanding literacy beyond the Western classical tradition while also emphasizing aurality/orality- a point that Patricia Shehan Campbell is at pains to make. Notwithstanding the importance of musical orality, failing to develop musical literacy in at least one notated musical tradition makes it difficult to break out of a solely aural/oral tradition into a literate one, something that exponents of aural/oral or little musical traditions may wish to do, sooner or later. And leaving students limited is arguably mis-educative since it stunts and prevents their further development.
Article from Music Teacher Magazine on Safeguarding, with Guidelines for Teachers and Students
Posted: April 27, 2015 Filed under: Abuse, Music - General, Musical Education | Tags: abuse, music education, music school abuse, Philip Pickett 10 CommentsAn article I wrote calling for conservatoires to take the lead in ensuring a new safe environment for students, in the wake of the Philip Pickett trial, was published in the April issue of Music Teacher magazine, accompanied by my proposed guidelines for students and teachers at tertiary level. With permission from the magazine, I reproduce the article here.
Proposed Guidelines to protect both Music Teachers and Students – a starting point for discussion
Posted: February 21, 2015 Filed under: Abuse, Academia, Music - General, Musical Education, Specialist Music Schools | Tags: damian thompson, Guildhall School, music education, Philip Pickett, telegraph, the conversation 16 CommentsYesterday saw the horrendous news of the conviction of and 11-year jail sentence for Philip Pickett on charges of rape and sexual assault of students while he was teaching at the Guildhall School. Here is the original list of charges against Pickett from last year; I do not wish to say much more specific to this case, not least because of the possibility of further trials; suffice to say that I believe a good deal more will be made public about both actions and the complicity of others.
If anything good is to come from this case, I hope it may help to put pressure for a proper international debate about the nature of music education and the possibilities for abuse and exploitation therein. I blogged in some detail about this last December, in response to an excellent article by Damian Thompson in the Spectator. Yesterday I published an article on the film Whiplash in terms of its representation of bullying and abuse in teaching, on The Conversation , and a wider article in The Telegraph about abuse and elite music teaching, in particular raising the controversial question of whether self-regulation is ever likely, and whether that a system which places enormous powers of patronage in a few people’s hands needs a greater degree of external accountability (which would mean political/governmental intervention). Naturally, I would expect there to be and would welcome a range of different opinions on these subjects, but feel strongly that the debate needs to be had amongst music educators worldwide, and more widely in the profession.
With this in mind, I wanted to post here a set of draft guidelines for instrumental and vocal teachers and students at a tertiary level (generally 18 or over) in terms of their dealings with one another, as a starting point for discussion. I drafted these around 18 months ago (which included other guidelines on such things as when it is/is not appropriate to cancel a lesson, not so relevant here), and whilst they have not yet been taken up, I hope very much at some point they or something like them will be.
I would welcome all thoughts on the below, including new suggestions, disagreements, and so on. I accept some will disagree with my views on physical touching (I suggest this is OK so long as one asks permission) and whether student-teacher relationships or sexual encounters are ever permissible (I argue that where they happen, or one or other party demonstrates agency with the intention of inducing such a thing, then both parties should act like adults and report things, their formal teacher-student relationship brought to an end without other negative consequences, then they are free to continue like any other two adults). But I think we should be talking about these things, in order to arrive at a humane system which protects both students and teachers.
Guidelines for Teachers
• In general, treat your student with respect as a human being, independently of your reflections on the quality and extent of their achievements as a performer. This should be borne in mind at all times.
• Remember that you are there to help the student, rather than their being there in order to enhance your own reputation.
• It is your choice how you wish your student to address you, whether by first name or title and surname. It is advised to clarify this to the student at the beginning of a lesson.
• Where there are serious problems concerning a student and their progress, you should try and discuss these with the relevant member of staff as soon as possible.
• It is accepted that teachers will naturally need to voice criticisms of a student’s playing or singing, sometimes severe criticisms. This should always be framed in such a way as to make clear that the criticisms relate solely to the student’s achievements (or lack of) specifically in terms of their work as a performer, not to their wider qualities as a person. Criticisms should be balanced with encouragement in the form of positive steps forward in order to improve.
• Use language which makes the above clear: for example, instead of saying ‘You are a very poor player’, say ‘You really do need to do considerable work in order to improve’, followed by suggestions of what form that work might take, or (if necessary) ‘It will be very difficult in the time available to you here to attain the level necessary in order to gain a high mark in your recital’. Similarly, avoid other generalities such as ‘You have no technique’ or ‘You are profoundly unmusical’, in favour of the likes of ‘I have to tell you that a good deal of work is necessary if you wish to achieve a higher technical level’, or in the second case, focusing on specific things the student needs to consider in order to be able to produce a more musically satisfying performance.
• You should always avoid any type of deliberately demeaning or belittling language of a personal nature towards a student, especially that designed to undermine their confidence. This can include undue and harsh sarcasm, deliberate aloofness and coldness, ignoring a student, negative comparisons with others, insensitive jokes, setting unrealistic demands, malicious rumour-mongering, threats, sexual or racial harassment, or anything which might be construed as ‘bitchy’. It is no justification for this to argue that such talk and attitudes are commonplace in the professional musical world.
• A student’s personal life is their own business, and discussions of this should generally only be undertaken when personal issues have a direct impact upon their performing. If a singer or other musician’s lifestyle – in terms of problems to do with sleep, maintaining good health, and so on – is impinging upon their singing, then it is legitimate to raise this issue. If a student raises the issue of difficulties arising from family, health or relationship issues, and wishes to talk about it, this is fine, but you should not feel under any obligation in this respect. In general, such matters are better discussed with the appropriate member of staff, who has pastoral responsibility, and who can communicate directly with you about them.
• When teaching a student, avoid befriending them on social media. [Personally I believe this is a principle worth observing for undergraduates, but which can be more flexible with postgraduates.]
• If you wish to make physical contact with a student in order to demonstrate some matter relating to performing, you must first ask their permission to do so. This can be done at the beginning of a series of lessons in order to facilitate so doing in general (but this must then be made clear to the student), or separately on individual occasion. If the student is unhappy with such physical contact and declines, this must be respected, and physical contact must then be avoided.
• Under absolutely no circumstances should there be any touching which can be construed as being of a sexual or unduly intimate nature.
• However, it is accepted that much music – especially for singers – relates to matters of an intimate and sometimes sexual nature, and it is legitimate to discuss this in lessons. But please always respect boundaries here, and be clear that you are talking about the music or the role, not directly about the student.
• Whilst in general conservatoire students are aged 18 or over and are technically adults, remember that they are still in a very early stage of adulthood, likely to be dealing with many pressures due to being away from home for the first time, having to negotiate possible loneliness, homesickness, coping with a degree of independence likely to be unprecedented for them, and of course a demanding course. It is best to work with the assumption that they are thus likely to be at a vulnerable stage in life, and should be treated with corresponding sensitivity.
Guidelines for Students
• You should always treat your teacher with respect and courtesy, be punctual for lessons, and acknowledge the help they are able to give you.
• Your teacher can choose how they wish you to address them, whether by first name, title and surname, or otherwise, and you should respect this. It is advised that this is clarified in the first lesson.
• Whilst you are certainly encouraged to solicit your teacher’s advice concerning the extent of your progress, or on future study, avoid asking such questions as ‘Do you think I can make it as a performer?’ or other such things which might put your teacher in a difficult position.
• If asking your teacher what they imagine would be your likely mark for a recital, on the basis of how you are performing at the time of asking the question, bear in mind that their answer will be an approximation, and is in no sense binding.
• Avoid flirtatious or overly ‘forward’ behaviour towards your teacher such as might place him or her in an awkward situation.
• Teachers may wish to make physical contact in order to demonstrate some matters relating to performance. They are required to ask your permission before so doing, either at the beginning of a series of lessons in order to establish that this is generally acceptable, or on individual occasions. If you do not wish this, you are entirely within your rights to refuse. Such physical contact should never be of a sexual or unduly intimate nature, nor should you respond to it in such a fashion.
• Never use any abusive or offensive language towards your teacher.
• When there are personal matters – for example relating to family, health or relationships – which might affect your performing, you are advised first to speak to your personal tutor, who can discuss these sensitively with your teacher.
• Your teacher often has a life and career outside of their work at your institution. Avoid gossiping about them, even amongst other students, including with respect to the nature of their other activities, as this can have the potential to be hurtful and demeaning. Any form of rumour-mongering, sexual or racial harassment, aggressive behaviour or threats towards your teacher will be treated with the utmost seriousness.
• Your teacher is not your friend on social media, and you should not request that they befriend you on there. [Personally I believe this is a principle worth observing for undergraduates, but which can be more flexible with postgraduates.]
• If you wish to record lessons for other reasons (so as to have a more permanent record for your own study purposes), you must ask your teacher first, and must also respect their wishes if they decline this request. (But see also Guidelines for both Teachers and Students below)
Guidelines for both Teachers and Students
• In the event of any serious worries about the nature of the relationship between teacher and student as made manifest verbally in lessons, either the teacher or student can request that the lessons be recorded. In this situation, the appropriate individual should be informed of this.
• In the event of any type of romantic or sexual liaison between a tutor and student – which can include any form of agency on either part with the intention of inducing such a thing, whether or not this is fulfilled – it is an essential requirement that both teacher and student report this to an appropriate individual. As a general rule it will be considered that in such a situation the relationship has assumed a degree of intimacy which is no longer compatible with a normal teaching relationship, and the student will be assigned to a different teacher, but without further consequences for either party.
Desiring Progress 