We overlook music departments at our peril

“As more university music departments face the axe, Thomas Graves points out what we’re all missing when we fail to recognise the unique value of music education With UK higher education (HE) in financial crisis , universities are once again looking to make savings. If recent years are any indication, such cuts are likely to be felt more in some places than others, with research and teaching budgets in the arts and humanities bearing the brunt. A discipline that has already suffered dramatic cuts and is now facing them again is music. Recently, for example, Oxford Brookes’ music department closed its doors , and the University of Kent closed its final remaining music course . Now the University of Nottingham has suspended all undergraduate music courses for new students ahead of a decision to axe the department. There has been an outcry with protests and petitions – but is the real, underlying issue that the true value of a music degree is widely misunderstood? More than performing “What instrument do you play?” is a question music students tire of. It’s a reasonable question and, given the performance entry requirements of many university music courses, not wrongheaded – music students do play instruments. But this is only a small part of what goes on in university music departments. To fully appreciate the role and value of these departments, it is important to know about what goes on there. It’s not straightforward. For a start, music departments are as diverse as music itself. There are conservatoires and performance-based institutions (think the Royal College of Music for western classical music, or BIMM for popular music), which focus on producing professional music performers. Then there are vocational music departments that concentrate on music production or the music industry, such as those at Salford, Falmouth, or Huddersfield. Finally, there are academic music departments, like at Oxford, Manchester, Durham. These departments focus on the study and research of different aspects of music from various perspectives. Academic music departments employ diverse research methods from anthropology (ethnomusicology) and psychology (music psychology), to physics (acoustics), music history and analysis, and philosophy, studying music’s intersections with culture, cognition, technology, and society. Part of the joy of a music department is that a shared study object (music) does not restrict the methods and theories used in research. The breadth and range of approaches to music taken in academic research mean that an equally broad mix of skills are available for students to learn. Transferable skills Indeed, at HE level, music degrees also train a wide range of academic, social, and industry skills – all of which can be applied elsewhere. As academic degrees, studying music at university involves learning academic skills and research methods, and applying these in projects and essays. Any music degree will involve valuable transferable skills, such as critical thinking, writing, interviewing, archival research, and maybe even experimental design and inferential statistics (if a music psychology module is available). Music degrees also usually teach technical and professional skills, which can range from technical troubleshooting in the studio to the basics of languages used for statistical analysis like R or MATLAB. Event organisation is often involved too, including budgeting, teamwork, and negotiation skills. Not all music degrees involve the same kinds of projects, but employers and university managers should be aware that the outcomes of music degrees are incredibly varied – well beyond ‘playing an instrument’. What happens when music departments are overlooked Yet, music continues to be undervalued in HE – and that has consequences for individual music graduates, music departments, and society. HESA data shows that the creative arts have the lowest percentage of graduates entering full-time employment, with 43% in 2022-23. These graduates also had one of the lowest average salaries 15 months after graduation, with only Psychology and Media earning less. For departments, the consequences are even worse. According to UK Music, the music department closures and threats seen at Nottingham, Keele , and Cardiff risk the integrity of the UK’s music talent pipeline , which is a vital part of the UK’s music exports, worth £2.5 billion in 2021. Attacks on music in UK higher education (and on the arts and culture sector more broadly) have wider societal consequences. Belfiore proposes that arguments for socio-economic impact of the arts and humanities miss their wider public value . Such attacks affect the availability of culture to young people, with course closures risking cold spots for arts and humanities across the country, where students without resources to move away from home are unable to access music education at all. This lack of availability may have deeper long-term effects on capacity for empathy , multiculturalism , and mental health . As music departments, academics, and students are deeply embedded within broader local music-making communities, the loss of university music departments also removes a vital source of energy and collaboration from local arts and culture ecosystems. Being human It seems clear that this devaluation of music in higher education should not continue. More funding is needed for music education and research in HE. But, to ensure a thriving and equitable future for music in higher education, more support is needed for music tuition at the pre-HE level as well. As many HE music courses have requirements for instrumental music proficiency, often focusing on the (costly) attainment of graded instrumental certifications, public support for instrumental lessons and exams for school-age children would increase HE music access for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. But music departments could also reconsider their acceptance criteria, given the small part instrumental ability often plays in the overall syllabus of music degrees. Beyond government and university management, departments themselves could engage in more outreach activities in local communities to increase awareness of what they do. This also requires funding, to increase the numbers of academic staff so that they have the time for such work, along with recognition for this work in reward structures. However, calculating the value of music for society, and to graduates plays into market logics. Music is not only a consumer product. It is a ritual, a conversation, a meditation, a historical document, a form of diplomacy, a medicine, a tool of social and political protest, and many things besides. Music is about more than what we as individuals or as society can get from it. Music is about the human creative impulse and imagination. It is about our emotional and spiritual life. It is about relations between people and communities. In short, music gets to the heart of what it means to be human. In an age of AI, we lose education in that humanity at our peril. Image: Martina Stokow / Public Domain Pictures.net This post is opinion-based and does not reflect the views of the London School of Economics and Political Science or any of its constituent departments and divisions. The post We overlook music departments at our peril first appeared on LSE Higher Education .

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