Higher Education Conference: Past, Current and Future Progression Routes to HE

When MusicHE was disbanded in October 2024, Music Mark took on responsibility for HE members as a Subject Association for all stages of music education across the UK. One of our primary ambitions is to connect universities and conservatoires to the prior stages of music education through reinforcing the infrastructure necessary to improve progression routes into HE.

This first HE Annual Conference within Music Mark aims to provide an opportunity for colleagues to discuss the role of HE as a vital part of the wider music education ecology. It will offer a space to champion outreach and engagement across the sector and explore potential fixes to the leaks in the pipeline, bringing in the voices of member bodies and partners from across the wider Music Mark membership. The conference will act as a space for colleagues to share best practice and openly discuss the challenges faced by the sector whilst offering proactive and actionable solutions.

Programme

8:30-9:00am Arrivals
9:00-9:15am Welcome
9:15-10:15am Breakout sessions:

• Identification with music influences the modes and impact of musical participation throughout the lifespan | Karen Burland, University of Leeds
• Students and survival as a small music department: Engaging with wider communities of musical practice | Tom Sykes, Liverpool Hope University
• Catching-up and Opting-out: The Impact of Inequality on Conservatoire Music Students’ Progression Routes | Kirsty Devaney, Royal College of Music
• Blow your own trumpet – Brass Bands as a conduit to Higher Education | Charlotte O’Neil, Independent Scholar

10:15-10:30am Morning break
10:30-11:30am Breakout sessions

• Changing profiles of music graduates applying to postgraduate courses of initial teacher education in secondary music | Ross Purves, Kate Laurence and Regina Saltari, UCL Institute of Education
• From Attributes to Orientation: Navigating Graduate Development and Employability in Music Higher Education | Chris Carter, Point Blank Music School
• Crossing the Threshold: Student Experiences of Entry Practices and Early Progression in one UK Conservatoire | Andrea Jones, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
• Notes from the Classroom: Music Literacy in UK Higher Education | Rebecca Thumpston-Gallagher, University of Nottingham

11:30-12:30pm Roundtable
12:30-1:15pm Lunch and networking
1:15-2pm HE Outreach Guide and HE MU Toolkit Launch and Music Mark HE Representative Announcement

2-3:30pm Breakout sessions:

• Film Scores to Open Doors: Repairing the Music Pipeline through School Outreach | Matt Lawson, Oxford Brookes University
• The Pedagogic potential of ‘unheard melodies’: using media music to support music teaching in primary schools | Jan Butler, Oxford Brookes University
• Instruments of Access: Museum Collections, Primary Schools, and the Road to HE | Ailsa Critten, Northumbria University
• Fixing the Leaky Pipeline of Performing Women’s Music: Women Transforming Classical Music | Laura Hamer, Open University
• Where to next? The importance of an inclusive and meaningful post-school, music education for learning disabled learners | Beth Black, Leeds Beckett University
• Doing things differently: Rethinking Higher Music Education Access and Participation | Jennie Henley, Royal Northern College of Music

3:30-3:45pm Afternoon break
3:45-4:45pm Making (It) Work: Reflections on Collaboration and Community | Keynote | Professor Benjamin Oliver, University of Southampton
4:45-5pm Closing words

Accessibility

You can find out more on the venue via Caerdydd/Cardiff University’s website. If you have any questions about the day or venue, please don’t hesitate to contact info@musicmark.org.uk.

If you would like to request presentation slides, questions and provocations in advance of the session, please get in touch with us by emailing info@musicmark.org.uk. Speakers may decline sharing this information on the basis of protecting their intellectual property or for other reasons and we cannot therefore guarantee availability for all events.

Finally, we would like to encourage everyone to participate in Music Mark training and events but understand that you may be experiencing barriers to attendance. If you are interested in any of our training and events offer but have concerns – whether that’s accessibility, financial hardship, or something else please let us know by completing this form.