The major and specialisation have undergone considerable re-organisation since the previous School review but have retained the core ethos of a solid grounding in critical thinking through musicological offerings and development of essential musicianship.
by a considered streamlining of the major and extended major offerings which has resulted in a course selection which caters to the core requirements and provides students with sufficient options to be able to meet program requirements.
Significant changes in the major have included re-organising the musicological/music history sequence, both chronologically and with respect to the implementation of training in key skills. This arose in part from the 2012 school review and the 2017 academic program and major reviews and has involved moving from an historical survey content model to a model which places more emphasis on works of the Western tradition as a scaffold for the development of skills in research, writing and critical thinking about music.
3.4.6.2.2 Popular Music and Technology Major
Another important change involved shifting the musicianship sequence away from a model which divided learning between a largely paper-based theory/writing techniques and an aural-based skills model to a model that replaces the theoretical component with a more practical keyboard-based approach to core understandings of tonality and harmony, which better complements the aural skills component. Student feedback and staff satisfaction with the process is encouraging. These developments did not arise in response to review processes, but through an organic and internal set of decisions by leading staff. Development of the keyboard lab was assisted by Faculty recognition of the quality of an unsuccessful bid in a highly competitive environment for a large ($100k) internal Teaching Infrastructure Grant in 2017. Following this, HASS provided $20k to provide support for a less ambitious keyboard lab. Commencing in 2018, and initially housed in inadequate space (room 478), student feedback validated proof of concept and the School obtained in-kind funding from the office of the University Chief Operating Officer to repurpose space in the Architecture-Music Library to better house the lab. One of the challenges in the Music major and specialisation has arisen in relation to diversity of offers in the elective space. UQ’s PA2 process put a spotlight on a range of majors and extended majors in the BA program which concentrated largely, if not exclusively, on issues of sustainability. The School responded Page 48
The Popular Music and Technology Major has undergone wholescale redevelopment since the last School review. Curriculum revision began with a research-informed curriculum mapping to understand the skill sets developed by the music technology curriculum in 63 Australian music technology courses and programs. This process revealed that within the sector, Music Technology curricula focused on developing technical knowledge at the expense of employability skills. This deficit was replicated in UQ Music’s Popular Music major. The School saw this as an opportunity to create a nationally distinct program and curriculum revision focused on developing students’ capacity to apply media technologies in flexible and creative ways, strengthening their career prospects in the arts, government, business, teaching and the science and technology sectors. Students in this area are now better equipped to meet 21st-century challenges in related discipline areas with a broad range of benchmarks being met in both critical, cultural and ethical understandings and technical skills related to current industry standards. A flipped classroom approach is now used across this suite of courses. Infrastructure resourcing of the program has also improved substantially and includes the installation of a new music computer laboratory for teaching, a completely new recording infrastructure installed in the School’s music recording studio and a new audio-visual broadcast infrastructure for UQ Music’s performance space. Student diversity and satisfaction have increased significantly over the last 6 years as a consequence of curriculum change: •
•
average female participation across all Music Technology courses has risen from 39.9% in 2013-2015 to 54.7% in 2020 (gender parity maintained since 2018) average international student participation across all music technology courses has
