The beat goes on? The current presence of music education in Australian public universities

Abstract

Instruction in the theory and performance of music has been part of Australian higher education since the nineteenth century. Using the online content analysis approach, this article analyses current units of study and curricula in each Australian public university that continues to teach music. This study provides a detailed analysis of what is taught and how universities providing music education conceptualize the merit and usefulness of this field of study. Our analysis reveals that music education in Australian public universities remains relatively common, but also identifies the trajectories that music education has followed, including departures from traditional classical performance and music theory to coursework offerings that have been enabled by methodologies prevalent in social and cultural history. Universities offering music education have also tried to position such education as fundamental to securing a career, but offer very little in the way of units aiming to develop a broader understanding of the industry or inculcating career-relevant skills beyond those that are strictly relevant to music making.

Keywords:

• Music education
• tertiary
• public universities
• Australia
• value propositions

Introduction

Instruction in music, including the practical skills of reading, interpreting, and performing music, music theory, the history of music, and composition of music, has occurred in Australian public universities since the nineteenth century. First, the University of Melbourne and then the University of Adelaide established professorial chairs and conservatoria in music, and their respective founding Acts of Parliament and 1853 and 1874 referred specifically to music as one of the domains of knowledge in which these universities would award degrees. The founders of early publicly funded universities in Australia thus regarded it as axiomatic that they would teach music. Australia’s oldest university, the University of Sydney, came later to teach music, but as higher education expanded in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, so too did music. The methods of instruction, the institutional infrastructures, and the musical repertoire had antecedents in English and European education, especially in the so-called “pillars” of intensive and elite musical training, which focused on “solo studies, ensemble studies, studies in music literature and studies in musicianship” (Harrison et al., 2013, p. 173). Musical repertoire comprised Western art music, predominantly the European Classical repertoire of the nineteenth and early-twentieth century, taught in the tradition of European conservatoires and English departments of music.

The scope of what is taught and performed, as well as the manner of instruction, has varied considerably since the first offerings in colonial universities. In parallel with other humanities-based disciplines, including the History of Art and English Literature, music now expands beyond an established Western canon that has been susceptible to critique from many directions, including gender, class, and race (Charles et al., 2022, p. 203). Categories including popular music, world music, and Indigenous music are taught alongside or may even have displaced classical Western art music in some institutions. The notion of a career in music also expanded over time. Arguably, departments or conservatoria traditionally prepared people to be performers of music or teachers of music (Lancaster, 2006, passim). Current music teaching widens beyond these two professional objectives to encompass a more versatile impression of musicianship and a life in music, including the business and relational aspects of working in music, or the use of technology to produce music.

But change in the humanities sector is often concomitant with contraction, and even crisis (Withers, 2018). The curtailment of nationally prominent schools of music in Australia has analogs elsewhere with other fields of study. As discussed elsewhere (Charles et al., 2022; Charles & Harmes, 2022), the humanities’ once highly visible footprint in higher education in Australia is receding or is at least under considerable threat. Previously established fields, such as classical Latin and Greek, Tudor history, and English Literature are now greatly diminished. Among the humanities disciplines, music is a distinctively labor-intensive and expensive field of study. The valorized one-on-one ratio between students and their teachers (Ethel & McMeniman, 2000) is a product of nineteenth-century conservatoria that twenty-first century Australian vice-chancellors would likely regard as inherently unsustainable. Nor can the current condition of music in higher education be seen in isolation. The impact of COVID-19 on the music industry via the abrupt closure of venues and the cessation of performances has likely rebounded onto the institutions producing new generations of performers (Morrow et al., 2022, p. 8), many of whom might have abandoned their pursuit of music to focus on more resilient industry sectors. Similarly, the Australian federal government’s recent decision to raise the cost of humanities education vis-à-vis STEM-based subjects by up to 113% (Daly & Lewis, 2020) could impact on the strength of the discipline. In addition, private providers of tertiary music education have increased significantly in Australia since at least 2001 (Hannan, 2001, p. 15), a situation which prompts questions regarding the place and viability of music education in public universities that have had to respond to a range of existential issues in recent times (Hogan et al., 2020).

In the light of these changes and concerns, this study aims to ascertain music’s current place in Australian public universities by investigating its breadth and depth in these institutions and determining the degree to which contemporary offerings in music education have been affected by current debates pertaining to the humanities. There have been numerous studies on the state and condition of the humanities and creative arts in Australian higher education and, since at least 2014, the teaching of music in Australian higher education has been described as being in a state of crisis (Tregear, 2014, p. 1). This research is therefore both a timely and detailed examination of the current state of music education. Offering a distinctively granular analysis of every unit of instruction currently offered and their context in terms of degrees offered and policy priorities, this study breaks new ground in exploring the current condition of music in Australian public universities.

As explained below in the historical context, Australian public universities include the institutions that emerged in the wake of the Dawkins reforms (named for the then federal education minister). Some therefore have within their structures previously stand-alone music conservatoria and schools of music, such as the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts embedded in Edith Cowan University, the Canberra School of Music embedded within the Australian National University, and the Queensland Conservatorium of Music embedded in Griffith University. The way in which universities have come to teach music is therefore diverse, but the focus here is on public providers as these institutions, compared to private ones, are beholden to public money, which means that the value of teaching in fields, such as art music must be expounded and justified. Against the broader backdrop of concerns relating to the general viability of types of education that are not readily perceived as leading to economic growth, innovation, or what the Australian Government has described as “job ready” graduates (Department of Education, Skills and Employment, 2021), this study also seeks to determine how public entities offering music education are communicating the proposed value of their endeavors to their stakeholders, including prospective students and, potentially, employers, policy makers, and internal university stakeholders.

Historical background

Instruction in, and the performance of, Western art music began early in the colonies that would later become Australia (Brownrigg, 2019). As a result, when higher education institutions began to teach music, this activity took place in a society with a strong musical culture.

Music was not among the foundation disciplines taught to students (as opposed to the degrees envisaged in expansive Acts of Parliament) of the colonial universities in Sydney (founded 1850), Melbourne (founded 1853), and Adelaide (founded 1874). However, these universities were founded in emulation of Oxford and Cambridge, universities which had offered the degrees of Bachelor of Music and Doctor of Music for many centuries (Leff, 1992, p. 307). Some colonial universities began teaching music, with the Acts of Parliament establishing the universities in Melbourne and Adelaide specifically referring to conferring degrees in music (An Act to incorporate and endow the University of Melbourne, 1853, p. 3; An Act to incorporate and endow the University of Adelaide, 1874, p. 167). By 1885, the University of Adelaide had a professorial chair in music and a Bachelor of Music that emulated the degree offered at Cambridge. Other early universities, such as the University of Queensland taught music from 1912, two years after its foundation. The University of Sydney, however, was a relative late comer and the conservatorium only opened in 1916, without a professorial chair (Bridges, 1970, p. 182). In the University of Adelaide and the University of Melbourne, in particular, musical instruction took shape around a professorship rather than through a conservatory. The degree content of harmony, counterpoint, choral, orchestral and chamber music, composition, and music history was rooted in Western art music, while the University of Melbourne’s first professor of music, G.W.L Marshall Hall, focused on Bach and Beethoven in his instruction (Bridges, 1970, p. 23).

Although derivative of the models of English universities and European conservatoria, Australian tertiary music education had some innovative characteristics. As Bridges (1970) notes, the colonial universities wove together different approaches to produce distinctive institutional approaches to teaching music. The emphasis in English universities’ music departments on composition differed from the emphasis on practical studies found in European conservatoria. Some colonial universities bridged this divide and the University of Melbourne was, for a time, unique in the British Empire for having a conservatorium within a university (Rich, 1991, p. 63). Successive professors of music encouraged the intermingling of the two approaches (Bridges, 1970, p. 17).

What was taught and how music was taught and examined were not static or uniform aspects of higher education. The University of Melbourne’s first professor of music, G.W.L Marshall Hall, seemed daringly avant garde by teaching Wagner. The standards set by the Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) engendered disagreement between music professors in different states regarding curricula. Particular universities’ music departments also pursued distinctive trajectories, such as the early music performance with crumhorns and harpsichord at the University of Queensland in the 1960s (Wilmott, 1986, p. 109).

The establishment of new public universities across the twentieth century increased the number of Australian tertiary institutions teaching music. Further wide-ranging changes to the structures of higher education had particular impacts. It was noted above that conservatoria embedded within a university was a distinctively Australian approach, but this approach presaged later tensions. The approach of the various universities to the governance of music education was not uniform: some had departments and others a conservatorium, while the University of Sydney had both. Public universities, however, were not the sole providers of music instruction as independent conservatoria existed, including in Queensland, where institutes of higher education also taught music.

The Dawkins reforms of 1988–1990 reconfigured higher education in Australia by removing the binary system of universities and advanced education institutes to create so-called “comprehensive universities” (Mahony, 1990) displaying a high degree of institutional isomorphism (Croucher & Woelert, 2016), with most of these institutions offering very similar curricula. These reforms had a particular impact on music education, with formerly independent conservatoria now amalgamated with other institutions to form universities. For instance, the Queensland Conservatorium merged with several other institutions, including a teacher training college, to form Griffith University (Roennfeldt, 2011, p. 238). The Canberra School of Music, an institution modeled on the Julliard in New York, lost its institutional independence through its merger with the Australian National University (ANU) in 1992, to become the ANU School of Music. These changes clearly impacted music education, where practical instruction in voice or an instrument had perforce been a labor-intensive activity. Once they became part of universities, music disciplines thus became compelled to compete with other teaching areas for funding (Bennett, 2007, p. 180).

A vivid snapshot of a perceived crisis in music in post-Dawkins Australian universities is the 2001 documentary Facing the Music, about the closing of the Department of Music at the University of Sydney and its merger with the conservatorium. Nearly a decade after the documentary’s release, the ANU School of Music became the subject of widely reported cuts to staff and to the curriculum (Sharrock, 2014, p. 351). These cuts were especially noteworthy as they affected the nation’s largest school of music, which had maintained a one-on-one teaching ratio across a wide range of instrumental tuition. However, the School operated with a budget deficit of millions of dollars, which led to a reduction of nearly 50% of the staff and a significantly reduced curriculum (Norrie, 2012). Such drastic cost-cutting prompted the former head of the ANU School of Music to describe tertiary music education in Australia as being in a state of crisis (Tregear, 2014, p. 1).

This brief historical overview began with reference to Western art music. A further important strand of historical development was the broadening of music curricula beyond this canon, a process paralleled elsewhere in the fine arts and humanities (Dale, 2012, p. 265). One way this broadening was achieved was through developing programs in other types of music but within the traditional conservatory structure and approach. For example, Griffith University’s conservatorium introduced a popular music program within its overarching conservatory approach, albeit with changes to assessment. Another way in which curricula broadened was through slippage between academic disciplines. Thus anthropology or cultural studies contributed wider perspectives in fields, such as folk and world musical cultures, and indeed the study of popular culture expanded music to popular music. The range and type of instruction also broadened, such as the increase in guitar instruction, largely a concomitant of teaching popular music (Rodriguez, 2018, p. 340).

Further disruption emerged in terms of what music graduates would do with their skills. The conservatoria and the schools of music in universities generally prepared their students for one or two careers: to perform music or to teach it. By the 1980s, internal curriculum review encouraged the expansion of these vocational prospects. For example, Griffith University introduced both teaching and exit qualifications in fields, such as musical technology, with a greater emphasis on using technology and being a professional in a music-oriented work environment (Draper, 2008, p. 138). Yet these professional music education avenues are no longer the sole preserve of public universities, for several well-resourced private tertiary institutions have emerged. Many of these emphasize the development of professional skills beyond simply the mastery of a music instrument or composition and also offer Bachelor’s or postgraduate qualifications that compete directly with the courses offered by the public universities at the center of this study.

Methods

The findings of this study rest on three datasets collected for this research as a part of an online content analysis approach (Krippendorff, 2012). The first dataset comprises the units (also referred to as courses or subjects) at every public Australian university teaching music at the Bachelor’s level. The second comprises the value propositions that these universities articulate to explain the public value of their music offerings. A third dataset employs a sampling strategy, which is regarded as a crucial aspect of content analysis, to effectively capture and represent the diverse range of universities and music degrees being investigated.

The online content analysis approach emphasizes the need for carefully considered categories to frame the data collection. In this case, categories of music education were required, something which was problematized by the absence of an overarching regulated national curriculum in Australia. In the UK, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education regulates higher education music curriculum through subject benchmark statements (QQA, 2019), while, in the US, the National Association of Schools of Music accredits music degrees for all universities and colleges implementing music programs. In Australia, however, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) accredits all universities and they all must undergo reregistration at least every seven years, but that does not equate to the regulation found in the UK and US. Australian public universities have the authority to accredit their own degrees within the TEQSA guidelines, and these guidelines are not subject-specific. Outside of primary and secondary schools, there is no national higher education music curriculum except for the AMEB, which is open to students of all ages and does not provide an accreditation at the tertiary level.

In general, the categories emerged from the historical context provided in the previous section. As discussed there, the privileging of Western classical art music led us to conclude that classical performance, musicology, and composition were enduring and logical categories. The development over time of a wider curriculum necessitated the inclusion of contemporary music and jazz, as well as music theater. Further contours of the historical trajectory of music education as discussed above included the evolution of education to include business and technological skills, and teaching of music to others. In short, music education was determined as cohering with the following nine categories, some of which embrace traditional forms of music education, while others are associated with more recent teaching emphases: “classical performance”; “contemporary performance”; “jazz performance”; “musical theatre performance”; “composition,” “music production & technology”; “music education and pedagogy”; “musicology”; and “music business.”

A guiding principle was to cover educational fields under the control of an organizational unit that was in some way a musical education entity, with data collection also including the organizational units. Allied health specializations, such as “music in health and well-being” or “music therapy” were considered but discarded as they did not come close enough to what is generally regarded as music education and, in any case, are not usually administered by music education entities within public universities. Furthermore, jazz was incorporated into contemporary music as initial exploration suggested that some units catered to both simultaneously.

Using the aforementioned categories, all units being offered in Australian public universities meeting our definitional basis of “music education” would be recorded. To be counted, units needed to be either offered in 2023 or be scheduled for the following year. Some units were discounted as there was no guarantee given they would be offered again. A preliminary pilot sample of three universities was undertaken. An interrogation of unit synopses available from online university handbooks resulted in some tweaks regarding how the various types of music education categories introduced above would be interpreted. The most important implications are as follows:

1. To be regarded as “classical performance,” a unit needed “classical” or similar in the unit description. This approach of seeking a key identifying term was also used for contemporary, musical theater, and jazz performances. Many performance units offer studio classes designed to teach across various majors, genres, or instruments within the same unit offering. Students are thus streamed into separate workshops based on their instrument and its repertoire. These were classified separately as “performance units with studio classes.”

2. Many students, as part of pursuing music studies, are required in their course progressions to undertake units that could broadly be described as professional development; in short, they are intended to provide students with an understanding of how to pursue their careers. Where such units specifically mentioned the music industry, or music in general, these were included in “music business.” Units designed for the creative arts industry in general were excluded.

3. Many students encounter music studies while preparing for a career as teachers. Some of these will teach music; that said, we have understood “music education” to mean units dealing with the principles of actually teaching music beyond the secondary level. In short, “music education” was defined as education relating to the development of skills and capabilities complementing the teaching of music privately, or a particular musical instrument, rather than units designed for those intending primarily to teach music subjects in primary or secondary schools. In most cases, the former could readily be distinguished from the latter via a unit code pertaining to music education (e.g., “MUS101”), rather than simply education (e.g., “EDU101”).

4. The “composition” category contains units that not only teach the principles of composition but also teach the art of musical arrangement. In essence, these units refer to those inculcating the principles of creativity in music students, regardless of whether the creative outputs are wholly original, or are adaptations and arrangements. As above, unit codes were generally deemed indicative of the unit’s orientation.

5. Finally, units that did not readily fit the eight categories were subjected to further discussion. This resulted in these units being discarded on the basis of not really constituting “music education,” or being moved into one of the eight categories, most often “musicology.”

As is often the case with the online content analysis approach, difficulties were encountered when determining what data might fit a specific category, so continual interrogation of course and unit content was required to determine the category that would be the best fit for a unit. Overall, the categories that were agreed upon proved to be useful, although there was a dearth of units in the “Musical Theatre Performance” category, especially given that only those units were retained that deal strictly with the musical side of musical theater, instead of acting or set design. Other data recorded included the type of degree incorporating music education (including if a major was offered),¹ the organizational entities offering this education, and whether there is the possibility of pursuing honors for those seeking additional study. Although the focus was clearly on undergraduate music education, the presence of honors, which involves writing a short thesis as well as some coursework, served as a proxy to indicate whether moving on to music-related research, such as via a research master’s or a PhD, was possible at that university, given that an honors qualification is often an important prerequisite for higher degree research (HDR) in Australia.

The value proposition of the lowest-level university entity offering musical education, such as a school or department, was also recorded, with this data being sourced from the Internet landing page for the musical education being offered. These promotional messages surrounding music degree programs convey promised skills, the learning experience, career pathways, and enhancements to prospective students’ social conditions (Puddephatt & Nelsen, 2010). In the collation process, some abridgment of these value propositions was required to elide descriptive information that did not speak directly to public value. Together, these value propositions were subjected to thematic analysis as per the recommendations of Braun and Clarke (2006), a process that provided a rich understanding of how universities and faculties are positioning the study of musical education (Hogan et al., 2021b). According to Braun and Clarke (2006), such a process is inductive by nature and allows certain patterns to emerge from the data that can lead to usable information about the types of value being proposed by entities offering music education in Australian public universities. The data from 32 universities was deemed to be of a manageable size and manual coding was pursued.

To determine what an undergraduate music degree might look like in terms of its basic composition, a sample of music degrees was then examined. For every university that offers music education, a representative degree was chosen that provides the most comprehensive music education either through a named degree or music specialization. An analysis of each degree’s structure determined the proportion of compulsory and elective study in music education, interdisciplinary studies, and general university-wide elective study. Music education is regarded as any study that is specific to music performance and theory, musicology, music business, music career development, music projects, music pedagogy, and music electives. Interdisciplinary units are taught outside of the music discipline and can include business and management, work-integrated learning, career development, arts and humanities options. University-wide elective options generally refer to studies that can be taken anywhere within the university without disciplinary restriction.

All data collected was subjected to rigorous discussion and double-checking by the research team. This was necessary to ensure a high degree of inter-rater reliability, an essential part of validation with the online analysis approach. The primary data collection occurred from March–May 2023, with the subsequent sampling of degrees being conducted in December 2023.

Overview of findings

In Australia, there are 37 publicly-funded universities. Of these, 32 currently have some kind of teaching presence in the areas that we have defined as music education. That only five public universities (Charles Sturt University, Curtin University, Deakin University, Latrobe University, and James Cook University) have no music offerings at all suggests a broad ubiquity of music education in some form in the Australian tertiary landscape. As the historical context above made clear, the colonial universities, which now comprise the bulk of the elite “Group of Eight” (Go8), had musical education relatively early in their development, whereas the entities offering music education in many later universities were the result of Dawkins-era mergers with earlier creative and performance entities. First of all, let us look at the representation of these 32 universities across broader educational categories.

Disciplinary categories

A range of disciplinary categories were analyzed across all 32 universities offering music education. Eight major educational categories were identified covering both broad music genre (i.e., classical, contemporary, and musical theater) along with other distinct areas of expertise (i.e. composition, production, education, musicology, and business). Table 1 presents an emphasis on contemporary performance, composition, production and technology and musicology across programs. Notably, over a third of units are performance-based and, with the addition of composition, the overall result is that 55% of all music units taught are dedicated to the making of music, a continuation of the historical emphasis on graduating students who will become performers. Representation of music technology and production is relatively high and is consistent with the technological advancement that has transformed the music industry since the 1990s (Lerch, 2018). Musicology also appears to be an important focal point of music education. This element potentially coincides with the offering of music education to non-playing and production students who are seeking employment across various industry support roles (e.g., journalism, marketing, and multi-media). It further highlights an area of likely revenue for institutions aiming subsidize the resource-intensive tuition of instrument and voice training.

Table 1. Presence of major educational categories among Australian public universities offering music.

Category of music education	Number of universities	Percentage of universities offering music education
Musicology	28	88%
Music production and technology	27	84%
Contemporary performance (incl. jazz)	25	78%
Composition	22	69%
Music business	14	44%
Classical performance	13	41%
Music education	12	38%
Musical theater performance	8	25%

Studies in contemporary performance are strong and represent the most common post-nineteenth century musical genres (jazz, rock, pop, etc.). This would likely coincide with the popularity of instrumental studies in guitar, saxophone, drums, bass, keyboards, and contemporary voice, offerings at odds with the way music instruction began in Australian higher education, which initially focused on Western art music. A smaller number of institutions, including the Australian National University and the University of Queensland, have retained traditional forms of classical training that were previously normative, including studies across orchestral instruments and classical voice. This is the same for institutions offering music education in musical theater. Perhaps surprisingly, there is little emphasis on music business education. Connection to industry and knowledge of commercial process would seem essential to a large contemporary music student base who crucially might need to create their own employment post-study (Bartleet et al., 2019), especially in the aftermath of COVID-related industry disruptions. The even lesser emphasis on musical education is also a surprising element as many practicing musicians take up private teaching to supplement their incomes. It also is a departure from the once normative intention of schools of music to graduate students who would either perform music or teach it (Chafe & Kaida, 2020). Yet it must be noted that formal teaching education is accredited in all Australian states and territories, and it would be expected that students undertaking this path, that is, those studying to become a music teacher in a primary or secondary education setting, would more likely do so primarily through relevant faculties of education.

Finer-grained unit analysis

In Table 2, we see the degree to which individual units advertised as being offered in 2023 and 2024 cohere with finer-grained categories of educational type. This will allow us to discern the representation of traditional and somewhat newer categories of music in the public tertiary landscape.

Table 2. Presence and depth of individual-unit categories among Australian public universities offering music.

Category	Number of units	Percentage of total units
Musicology	214	18%
Composition	162	14%
Classical performance	146	12%
Music production and technology	142	12%
Performance units with studio classes*	97	8%
Music theory	96	8%
Jazz performance	82	7%
Contemporary performance	79	6%
Musical theater performance	66	6%
Music education and pedagogy	50	4%
Music business	28	2%
Non-Western music	15	1%
Total	1,177	100%

* Studio classes are streamed by majors, instruments or voice within the same unit offering.

A total of 1,177 individual music units were discovered across the 32 universities. Table 2 indicates the number of units being taught across music education categories. The largest number of units (401) is found across the main performance categories (classical, jazz, and contemporary). These units cater for technical development across a wide range of instruments and voice, are at the forefront of music educational offerings, and involve individual, ensemble, and orchestral tuition. Within this number are units that comprise studio classes. It is common for universities to offer studio classes within a generically-named unit offering. In these studio classes, students are streamed via their major and/or instrument for the purpose of individual tuition, master classes, or small group sessions. For example, of the 13 universities that offer classical performance, eight offer those units as studio classes combined with other genres and majors. Composition also presents a significant number of units and is also a dominant category that is often offered as a major.

There is still some emphasis on teaching the performance of classical Western art music, with 12% of all units being of this type. Yet teaching in this area is concentrated among eight universities, and especially those with conservatoria, a finding which coheres with the historical analysis offered above. Of these, the University of Melbourne boasts 62 units dedicated to various classical performance genres (e.g., opera, chamber music, and large ensembles). In many other institutions, there is an increased emphasis on the performance of other music forms, including the aforementioned jazz, guitar-based contemporary rock, and electronic music of various types, including that for video games or film and television. Some types of world music, such as that of China, Indonesia (Gamelan music), and Japan (Shakuhachi), were found, but their study amounted to only twelve separate units offered across only two institutions (Sydney and Melbourne). At Melbourne, we also find a handful of units of West African (2) and Latin American (Samba) music being taught, together with a world choral music unit. Although the once-dominant focus on Western art music has clearly diminished, its place has not been taken by a burgeoning engagement with world music; rather, it would appear that more contemporary styles of music have been pushed to the foreground.

Although a large number of universities have embraced production and technology education, with only a total of 142 units, this category appears to be rather thinly spread among the 32 institutions offering tertiary music education. The low number of music education units is perhaps expected in the light of the preliminary analysis above, but, somewhat more surprisingly, there are also comparatively low numbers of units that develop business skills and knowledge. In fact, units pertaining specifically to the music business were the least prevalent of all the eight categories of music education identified, with a mere 29 units being spread across 32 public institutions. Indeed, 18 universities do not offer any units in this area.

That musicology units make up 18% of all the music-related units offered is significant. Such units, not being of a performance-oriented nature, are obviously able to be taught to students without a practical music background, which likely increases their broader appeal. For example, units, such as “From Elvis to YouTube” offered by the University of Adelaide and “Popular Music and Society” offered by Monash University could potentially have broad cultural appeal and could be pursued, as electives, by students studying a range of other discipline areas across the university. Moreover, such units are able to be taught to larger numbers of students than would be the case for performance-oriented units, thus leading to economies of scale. This is likely an important factor for faculties and schools offering music education, given that enrollments in musicology units would help to cross-subsidize the high costs associated with the more resource-intensive units that remain, nonetheless, the core of the entity’s musical offerings, and, moreover, are most closely aligned with its identity.

A close inspection of the units that music students are expected to undertake in some Australian universities offering music education reveals that, instead of students being expected to undertake units that deal specifically with the music industry, they must enroll, instead, in professional development units that are designed for creative arts students of all types, with these units not even mentioning “music” in their published online synopses. This is the case, for example, for students studying music education at the University of the Sunshine Coast, the University of New South Wales, and Queensland University of Technology. Note that all such units that did refer specifically to “music” were counted as part of this study, regardless of whether music was the only focus.

Degree types, majors, and honors

With nineteen universities providing it, the Bachelor of Music presents the core music offering in Australian tertiary education. In particular, it seems clear that the older Go8 universities and those with conservatoria remain, for the most part, wedded to single Bachelor of Music offerings, with nine such institutions offering the Bachelor of Music only. Another ten institutions offer both the Bachelor of Music and significant music major choices within other humanities degrees, such as the Bachelor of Arts. Several universities have tied their music-related offerings to schools of multi-media or creative industries, and here there is evidence of whole degrees for non-playing students, with many of these focusing on production and technology.

The presence of a dedicated music degree or at least a major in an area cohering broadly with music points to the degree to which the discipline area remains embedded in the university’s undergraduate offerings. By the same token, the possibility of undertaking an honors degree gives an indication of the extent to which the university believes in the broader discipline having a future, given that honors is the usual prerequisite for higher degree research study in Australian public universities. Table 3 below captures whether Australian universities offer a music degree (such as a Bachelor of Music), or a related degree with a music-related major (such as a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Creative Arts). Of course, many students might study a music unit as an elective while pursuing all manner of other studies. The table also indicates whether undertaking honors in a music-related area is possible.

Table 3. Availability of undergraduate majors and honors in universities with a presence in music education.

University	Degree in music	Music-related major in other degree (e.g., BA, BPA, B. Creat Ind, B. Fine Arts)	Honors in music-related area ✔
Australian Catholic University		✔
Australian National University	✔	✔	✔
Central Queensland University	✔
Charles Darwin University		✔
Edith Cowan University	✔	✔	✔
Federation University		✔
Flinders University		✔
Griffith University	✔	✔	✔
Macquarie University	✔		✔
Monash University	✔		✔
Murdoch University		✔
Queensland University of Technology		✔	✔
RMIT University		✔
Southern Cross University	✔		✔
Swinburne University of Technology		Circus Arts
University of Adelaide	✔	✔	✔
University of Canberra		✔
University of Melbourne	✔		✔
University of Newcastle	✔		✔
University of New England	✔	✔	✔
University of New South Wales		✔	✔
University of Queensland	✔		✔
University of South Australia		✔
University of Southern Queensland	✔	✔	✔
University of the Sunshine Coast	✔	✔	✔
University of Sydney	✔		✔
University of Tasmania	✔		✔
University of Technology Sydney		✔	✔
University of Western Australia	✔	✔	✔
University of Wollongong		✔	✔
Victoria University	✔	✔
Western Sydney University	✔	✔

As discussed earlier, five universities have no engagement in music education. Of the remaining 32, the offering of degrees varies across institutions. Two-thirds (21) of those offering music education offer a dedicated Bachelor of Music, with 15 of these universities also offering an honors program. Central Queensland University is the only institution to offer just a Bachelor Music with no honors. Twenty-four institutions provide a music-related major and, of these, 11 offer a music-related honors program. Thirteen institutions offer a music degree plus a music related major in another degree, with nine of these also offering honors. Eleven institutions provide music-related education in another degree (e.g., Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Creative Industries), and of these, seven institutions offer a music-related major, but with no honors program. These eleven institutions could arguably represent a second tier of music schools outside the conservatoria, where limited instrument, voice, and composition options are available, but music technology and musicology remain the important foci.

Value propositions

Of the 32 universities offering music education, 30 of these had a value proposition or value propositions that could be identified from public facing websites. The exception was Swinburne University of Technology, where music education is spread thinly throughout three organizational entities rather than coordinated by a school or department of English, and where any value propositions located did not specifically pertain to music education. As a result, Swinburne was removed from further analysis.

Thematic analysis of the value propositions of universities offering education in the broader field of music enriches the numerical data. Analysis of the wording and the articulated intention in these statements indicates important differences between universities and their offerings. From our thematic analysis of the content of these statements, which were tied to relevant organizational entities, or to descriptions of majors in music, it became possible to code these statements into four distinct types of value propositions. These patterns, together with the key words and concepts underpinning these propositions, comprise, in order of their frequency: (i) Preparing for a real-world career (key words and concepts: industry, real-world, career, entrepreneurship, versatile); (ii) Developing musical competencies (key words and concepts: knowledge, skills, musicianship, mastering an instrument); (iii) Promoting art for art’s sake (keywords: art/artistry, creativity, originality); and (iv) Being part of a tradition of excellence (key words and concepts: excellence, outstanding, prestigious, distinguished, globally recognized, conservatoria). These patterns emerged from the process of double-checking and discussion after an initial inspection of the data.

Music offers are clearly not driven by the same external accountability as, for example, business, and therefore do not have to publicly frame their value to meet the demands of accreditation bodies. However, the front-facing communication does prompt prospective students or other parties involved in decision making about what sort of course to pursue. The following table shows which public universities are associated with the four value propositions stated above (Table 4).

Table 4. Value propositions in all public universities offering music education.

University	Preparing for a real-world career	Developing musical competencies	Promoting art for art’s sake	Being part of a tradition of excellence
Australian Catholic University	✔	✔
Australian National University	✔		✔	✔
Central Queensland University	✔
Charles Darwin University	✔	✔
Edith Cowan University		✔	✔
Federation University	✔	✔
Flinders University	✔
Griffith University	✔			✔
Macquarie University	✔	✔
Monash University	✔	✔
Murdoch University	✔
Queensland University of Technology	✔		✔
RMIT University			✔
Southern Cross University	✔
University of Adelaide			✔
University of Canberra	✔
University of Melbourne			✔	✔
University of Newcastle	✔
University of New England	✔
University of New South Wales	✔		✔
University of Queensland	✔	✔
University of South Australia	✔
University of Southern Queensland	✔
University of the Sunshine Coast	✔	✔
University of Sydney			✔	✔
University of Tasmania		✔	✔
University of Technology Sydney	✔	✔
University of Western Australia			✔	✔
University of Wollongong	✔	✔
Victoria University	✔	✔
Western Sydney University		✔

All universities offering music education could be aligned to at least one of the four value propositions identified in the thematic analysis, except for Swinburne University of Technology, which had previously been excluded from further examination.

The most revealing result is the frequency of value propositions relating to being employable and forging a career in the music industry, which we refer to as preparing for a real-world career (n = 23). This value proposition was almost ubiquitous. The emphasis on the musical education leading to employment was typically accompanied by words, such as “career,” “real world” or developing knowledge of the “industry.” While one might have expected these appeals to contemporary and future relevance to be the preserve of second-tier or regional institutions, this was not necessarily the case, with the elite Go8 universities also being keen to highlight the practical utility of their offerings. For example, the Australian National University’s value proposition (from an institution based on the Juilliard and which taught such specialist fields as classical harp and fortepiano) led with “Preparing artists for musical careers in the twenty-first century,” while the University of Queensland’s was to ensure that students could achieve “A creative career as a professional musician.” Some institutions went further by suggesting the versatility of their musical programs. For example, Southern Cross University described a “multi-faceted career pathway” being open to graduates, while the University of Newcastle envisaged that its graduates would enjoy “diverse professional roles across the creative industries.”

Another significant finding is that preparing for a real-world career is more frequently found than any reference to developing the skills needed to actually perform or craft music, with developing musical competencies coming in at second place overall (n = 30). Universities offering this value proposition typically referred to the “knowledge,” “skills,” and “expertise” acquired during the course. In more specific terms, some referred to “musical training” (Macquarie University), “technical fluency” (Victoria University), or students learning to “master their chosen instrument” (Edith Cowan University), or simply improving one’s “musicianship’ (Australian National University). Of course, the acquisition of musical competencies does not refer solely to playing an instrument or developing one’s vocal technique, but could relate to relevant technologies, or aspects of music, such as composition or conducting.

In third place is the notion of being part of the artistic world, with a third (n = 10) of the universities proposing such an outcome for their music graduates. Such universities emphasized the importance of “art” or “artistry,” or the importance of “creativity” or “originality.” Significantly, the types of universities that emphasized promoting art for art’s sake were mainly those with a conservatorium, academy, or what is regarded as an elite school (University of Adelaide, Australian National University, Edith Cowan University, University of Sydney, University of Tasmania and University of Western Australia), together with two of the nation’s most salient technology universities, these being Queensland University of Technology and RMIT University—institutions where the emphasis with respect to music education is more on production and technology rather than traditional performance. Of significance is that the University of Western Australia describes its students as “emerging artists,” while the University of Melbourne claimed that “we work to sustain the vitality of music in society and to shape the future of our art form.” Edith Cowan University, far from pragmatic considerations of employability, observed that “originality” is what “we strive to nurture at WAAPA [Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts].”

The final category, being part of a tradition of excellence, expectedly was predominant (n = 5) in those universities with long-established conservatoria, these being Griffith University, the University of Melbourne, the University of Sydney, and the University of Western Australia, or with an international reputation for excellence, such as the Australian National University’s School of Music. Such institutions were wont to emphasize their high caliber with the use of “excellence,” “outstanding,” or “prestigious,” often with an emphasis on the venerability of their organization, or statements regarding its “award-winning” (Griffith University) nature, or its “close ties with other leading musical institutions around the world” (University of Adelaide). In such cases, there was an intimation that, upon graduating from such bodies, one joins an “internationally recognized” (University of Sydney) musical family. Although some of these universities also ticked the box for preparing for a real-world career, this appeared incidental to the overall value proposition of becoming connected to a global musical elite.

Sample of curriculum expectations

To understand the degree to which music education is comprehensive across each institution, a sample of degrees was analyzed. This sample represents the primary music degree offering from each institution, i.e., the degree comprising the largest proportion of music education being offered within a single degree. Furthermore, the sample assessed the relevance of the curriculum in developing music graduate competencies and demonstrated the extent of music specialization that is present. Three categories were found to be present across the Australian university music landscape (Table 5). Note that these are not rankings, but rather represent a measure of the structure of each degree offering and the proportions of music education vs. other non-music disciplinary study.

Table 5. Sample of music education offerings from Australian public universities.

Category	Characteristics	Examples
Category 1—virtuoso	A dedicated music degree with several specializations or focal areas of music education on offer, in performance (i.e., classical, jazz, and contemporary), production, musicology, or composition. All degrees in this category are named a BMus and result in a subsequent named major or specialization as part of the award. There is a high proportion of compulsory music units with an emphasis on developing individual technical skills, ensemble experience, and highly-developed music theory, compositional, and musicological knowledge. The degree has no compulsory interdisciplinary studies. However, there are options (albeit restricted) to study non-music units through general or university-wide electives.	Edith Cowan University—Bachelor of Music University of Sydney—Bachelor of Music
Category 2—artisan	A dedicated music degree where the range of specializations or focal areas of music is limited in terms of genre (e.g., contemporary only), or by offering broader music education across specializations to build a range of technical and professional skills. Generally named a Bachelor of Music, but may also include other degrees that offer a music specialization. The proportion of compulsory music units varies, but is generally more than half to three quarters of the course. Compulsory interdisciplinary studies make up a small proportion of the degree and there is more breadth to study other non-music units through general or university-wide electives.	Australian National University—Bachelor of Music University of Southern Queensland Newcastle University—Bachelor of Music and Performing Arts Charles Darwin University—Bachelor of Arts
Category 3—generalist	Music education is offered within a broader faculty or disciplinary setting whereby students study various aspects of the music discipline to build a range of professional skills. The degree combines an interdisciplinary education with a focus on music and offers flexibility to explore other disciplines alongside music studies. The proportion of music units is much less than half the degree and is often associated with the selection of a “music major” or specialization. There is a much greater proportion of non-music units (e.g., business, humanities, and arts) and one can study general university-wide electives.	Australian Catholic University—Bachelor of Arts University of Canberra—Bachelor of Creative Industries Murdoch University—Bachelor of Creative Media

Category 1—virtuoso implies the development of extraordinary skill and flair in the field of music. The presence of multiple specializations signals a degree that is supported by a highly proficient learning environment with the capacity to develop mastery of graduate skills. Ten universities fall into this category, with some degrees being exclusively focused on music education and with no scope for non-music study (e.g., University of Sydney, University of Melbourne, and University of Western Australia). It is common in this category for the degree to combine a large proportion of music education with an option to study university-wide electives. For example, Griffith University and Monash University allow students to study four units from anywhere within the university’s undergraduate offerings.

Category 2—artisan is applied to describe a broader range of study options beyond music, but where there is still a dominant focus on building mastery in various aspects of music. While there is a high proportion of music units across degrees in this category, there is also more scope for interdisciplinary or elective study in other areas. These degrees usually include general elective study from across the university, but can also include compulsory units from arts, humanities, or business. For example, the Bachelor of Music and Sound Design at the University of Technology Sydney has core interdisciplinary units in “Digital Literacies,” “Communicating Difference,” and “Creative Entrepreneurship.” Fifteen universities fall into this category, whereby the most common structure is for at least two-thirds to three quarters of the degree being dedicated to music education, and another third comprising interdisciplinary or general elective study.

For Category 3—generalist, the music component is commonly offered within a broader disciplinary context, such as arts, the creative industries, or digital media. Studies focus on building a range of music skill and knowledge, with a high proportion of study being dedicated to core units and electives from non-music disciplines. There are seven universities falling into this category. Often the vehicle for such an offering is a Bachelor of Arts with a music major (e.g., Australian Catholic University), but such an offering can also be found in other creative disciplinary areas. For example, the Bachelor of Creative Industries at Murdoch University combines several career-orientated units, such as “Career Learning: Managing Your Career” and “Building Employability Skills,” while the University of the Sunshine Coast offers units in “Understanding Cultural Diversity,” “Communication for Creative Professionals,” and a “Work Integrated Learning Project” as part of the core offerings in their Bachelor of Music.

Discussion and concluding remarks

The relative ubiquity of tertiary music education in Australia is encouraging for aspiring artists, producers, educators, and music consumers. The suggestion of crisis that permeates discourse about the arts and humanities in higher education in general nonetheless remains current. There is clearly an increasing emphasis away from the actual mastery of various instruments, especially those of Western art music, to a broader knowledge of music as a cultural and technological phenomenon. Technology-based units appear to be on the rise in the same way as musicology ones, and so the danger that presents itself is a music degree being pursued by students without any substantial knowledge about how to play music. This is a trend inconsistent with other studies where the performing musician is the dominant graduate occupation, albeit with an increasing focus on portfolio careers and non-performing roles in education, management, and marketing (Burt-Perkins & Lebler, 2008; Munnelly, 2020; Pike, 2017). Furthermore, the results support the long-held view that music education is not just for musicians and should go beyond instrument or vocal training and thus also prioritize educational outcomes for music graduates—performance and non-performance—that serve diverse interests and career goals (Bowman, 2001). The growth in music-related education is clearly linked to a demand for courses that range beyond music performance to include other kinds of creative endeavor, with these potentially serving as a way for universities to align themselves with industry needs without overinvesting in performance and production teaching resources. Technology has indeed become a pervasive force in music regarding the way in which it is written, produced, and consumed (Hesmondhalgh & Meier, 2018; Wikström, 2020).

Internationally, there are indications that the study of Western classical music in higher education is experiencing some decline (Whittaker, 2021), and that institutions in the UK, Europe, the US, and Australia are increasingly reliant on international students from Asia and predominantly China to meet enrollments (Ford, 2020). This is similar to the predicament of business and management schools that recruit heavily from Asia to support the financial goals of parent institutions (Hogan et al., 2021a). The rise of jazz and popular music education in higher education is conspicuous and has also been described as a factor in marginalizing Western art music (Jorgensen, 2003), perhaps, in the case of Australia, relegating it to those institutions with the depth of resources required to do full justice to teaching classical music.

The findings also highlight a distinction between primary/secondary teaching of music vs. private teaching. In Australia, the former is achieved through additional study of accredited education degrees, whereas the latter is an informal pathway to independent private teaching, with little or no formal pedagogical training as a prerequisite (Upitis et al., 2017). When one bears in mind that the private teaching of instruments or vocal technique plays a significant role in the working life of many musicians (Bennett & Bridgstock, 2015) and that there is a large learner demand for those with the ability to offer private teaching services (Freer & Bennett, 2012), it is notable that there is a such a limited focus on music education and pedagogy across the tertiary sector. This, we would argue, presents a significant gap in the music degree offerings currently found in Australian universities and implies a need for greater levels of formal training in private studio teaching and ensemble direction. That point however is complex. As the historical analysis revealed, music education in Australia followed English and European precedents by offering one on one instrumental tuition and an expectation that graduates would proceed to a career in performance, including conducting ensembles. Identifying a limited focus on music education and pedagogy across the tertiary sector may therefore seem reductive and a return to earlier practice and a period of more generous funding of the arts and humanities in higher education. As discussed below, however, possible policy implications emerging from this research include the possibility of a closer working link to private institutions, which, in turn, have closer working connections to industry.

One of the most significant outcomes pertains to a general issue that has been facing the humanities in response to current policy and economic demands, namely, that of making the case that the humanities produce job-ready, employable graduates (Lewis & Lee, 2020). The value propositions made by those public universities offering music education in Australia clearly emphasize this, with over two-thirds of these universities stating, in some form, that their music graduates will be prepared for a successful career in a music-related work context. Yet, an exhaustive inspection of the curriculum that is actually being provided does not appear to bear this out. With the contemporary emphasis on detailed industry knowledge and the development of networks as a precursor for professional success (Jackson, 2016; Smith, 2014), this would appear to indicate a lack of depth in studies in the music business area and indicates a significant gap that could result in significant reputational risk to the broader sector. This speaks to a likely need for universities to develop units that relate closely to the music industry in particular, rather than the creative arts industry in a broader sense.

With respect to outcomes from a policy and tertiary education management perspective, three important and inter-connected areas for future directions emerge. First, there likely needs to be more specialization outside the more traditional performance-oriented offerings at the older institutions. In an ever-tightening market for humanities education (Charles & Harmes, 2022), there is likely to be less and less room for the kinds of institutional isomorphism that have previously dictated offerings in the Australian tertiary education sector. In short, there are likely to be too many universities offering too many of the same things, and this seems to hold true for tertiary music education in public universities. Second, and connected to the above, is that there could be more attention given to whether certain types of music education are best placed within Australian public universities, or whether private institutions with closer working connections to industry and thus future employment pathways are a better option for many prospective music students. Third, public universities are likely to be slow to recognize the drift toward educational experiences beyond the tertiary classroom (Gilman & Serbanica, 2014; Thune, 2011, p. 32). Aside from private providers of music education, there is an increasing emphasis on “do-it-yourself” in the creative industries in ongoing “dialogues of change” in this field (Ashton et al., 2022, p. 5), especially in the arena of production and the use and application of technology. Less formal education of a theoretical nature and more fine-tuning of already-developed commercially relevant skills could emerge as significant in the field of music, with micro-credentialing being one such vehicle to achieve these ends, and also provide better public value (Wheelahan & Moodie, 2022, p. 222) than publicly-funded three-year degrees that may only be relevant to those hoping to pursue traditional music careers beyond the university or conservatorium.

In sum, music education in Australian public universities seemingly remains a vibrant, indispensable, and surprisingly resilient—given the treatment of other types of humanities education in recent years—part of the higher education landscape. Music degrees have evolved by adopting modern genres, technological advancements, and the recognition of a broader range of vocations that complement performance and support industry activity. This adoption of a more comprehensive unit offerings could, at least in some respects, be perceived as diluting the traditional core of music education, that is, performance, composition, and theory, and the old primacy of Western art music, but the emergence of other forms of music education within public tertiary education providers highlights the continually progressive nature of music and its broader contribution to contemporary society. In an overall rather depressing socio-political climate for the humanities in Australian higher education (Charles et al., 2022), there is some solace to be had in recognizing that, at least for music education, the beat continues to go on. That said, it is important that music education, if it is to continue its relative resilience, needs to focus more on meeting its stated value propositions, for, as we have seen in the case of other traditional discipline areas in the humanities, tertiary music education cannot rely on its historical and cultural significance alone for its survival.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the journal’s two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful insights and helpful suggestions that have hopefully improved this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Education degrees in which music education could take place were not recorded as the intent was to record degrees that focused on music education, rather than education. In effect, a bachelor’s degree with a major in a music-related field became the minimum threshold for whether a university was determined to offer a serious focus on music.