The School into the Future

Six framing questions have underpinned our approach to planning for the future:

1. How can we better support our people?

2. How can we better prepare our students for changing social, cultural and employment contexts?

3. How can we better navigate the research environment to access opportunities and communicate our research contribution in both traditional and non-traditional spheres?

4. How can we deepen our commitment to diversity and Indigenous strategy?

5. How can we engage with partners and our community more effectively?

6. How can we work towards sustainability while still meeting the resource-intensive needs of music education?

In exploring these questions through this document, emerging priorities are noted at the end of each section in The School at Present (Part 3). In reflecting on these priorities, the shape of the School of Music’s strategic direction was developed. Our strategy was considered and evaluated in relation to the School’s operating context, HASS Faculty priorities and UQ’s strategic plan.

Our strategy acknowledges the strengths of our current position, as well as the significant impacts of recent change and disruption. We will use our strengths to address our challenges, ensuring that the School’s various categories of endeavour are interconnected and mutually enriching. This approach relies on crafting intertwined teaching, research and engagement strategies. It builds on our distinctive position as a tertiary music institution embedded within a comprehensive university and on our fruitful relationships with a broad range of partners.

Incorporating integration as a core principle also supports the goal of sustainability through reinforcement of our efforts across different areas. For example, reviewing research training and supervision in the BMus(Hons) and MMus programs supports related goals of improving the student experience as well as managing staff workload. Another example is seeking to grow our Indigenous research strategy in tandem with our performance engagement activity.

2.1 Supporting People

While School of Music staff are passionate and engaged, results from the 2021 staff Pulse survey highlighted career development and workload as areas needing attention. Our approach is to support staff to integrate their career identities and progression with university culture, to manage workloads and to consider the volume and types of work our structures and activities create. Actions to better support our people include:

• identifying an individual mentor for each continuing academic staff member (from within or beyond the School)

• reviewing the workload model in collaboration with staff to find balance between individual staff strengths, School commitments, and workload equity and transparency

• addressing the design of research training and supervision in program offerings in anticipation of continued growth in student demand.

2.2 Teaching and Learning

Four priorities have been identified in supporting teaching and learning.

First, the School of Music produces impressive and highly employable graduates, but non-retention rates must be reduced. Our strategy here involves improving the student experience and support offered across all cohorts. The actions identified in supporting students include:

• allocating bequest funding across major disciplinary groups at undergraduate and postgraduate levels to support employability and performance opportunities

• refining and continuing communication practices and student support offered by program convenors that were trialled in 2022, such as the BMus(Hons) convenor meeting with every first-year student in Semester 1.

Second, our dual-degree options, and particularly our pre-service teacher preparation pathways, are undersubscribed. Our curriculum may be prioritising breadth at the expense of depth in various aspects of teacher preparation. Our strategy is to clarify and articulate the value of these offerings and build on networks to promote them. Proposed actions include:

• further promoting the dual degrees and teacher-preparation pathways (including Head of School networking visits to Queensland high schools)

• reviewing pre-service teacher preparation pathways as part of the 2023 Academic Program Review.

Third, the School has identified a need to enhance research training and Honours preparation in the BMus(Hons). Our approach will be to focus on the recruitment of students with higher academic standing (ATAR 83 or higher) into the BMus(Hons) and better scaffold research training across years 1 to 3 of the degree. Actions to support this strategy include:

• offering programs to high school chamber groups, such as a Winter School

• developing students’ critical thinking and writing skills more progressively in year 1 to 3 core courses

• resuming the implementation of scaffolded research training in performance courses that was placed on hold in 2020 because of the pandemic.

Fourth, while student numbers are healthy in voice, piano, strings and flute, there is an uneven spread of enrolments across the other instrumental cohorts in the BMus(Hons). Strategically, the School must focus on recruitment in wind, brass and percussion to ensure sustainability of orchestral performance, and a diverse instrumental environment for pre-service teacher preparation. Actions to support this goal include:

• supporting and growing inter-semester high school “Discovery” days for target cohorts to raise awareness of music education at UQ

• promoting the BMus(Hons)/BEd(Sec) dual degree as the pathway for students interested in instrumental specialisation as high school teachers

• partnering externally to network with current high school teachers of brass, wind and percussion.

2.3 Research

The School has enjoyed a decade of considerable achievement in research but there are emerging challenges. Supporting the research endeavour from a small staffing base in a difficult funding environment will require:

• investing in researcher development, training and mentoring, including better connecting to centrally delivered researcher development programs

• developing HERDC category 2 and 3 grant strategies for arts researchers

• further developing collaborative research opportunities (including a review of our relationships with honorary staff) and leveraging the Creative Arts and Human Flourishing (CAHF) project’s next phase to amplify the activities of our researchers.

A second area of need involves the School of Music’s research narrative and communication strategy. A unified profile and sense of visibility is difficult to achieve with our combination of diverse disciplines across a small staff base. Our approach involves:

• building our distinctive collaborative research identity, (notable for the involvement of artist-researchers collaborating with other disciplines), articulating our contribution, documenting our impact and communicating our narrative more effectively

• incentivising increased staff engagement with UQ research culture and systems through mentoring, support and workload management.

2.4 Diversity and Indigenous Strategy

While the School has made progress in Indigenous engagement through important aspects of its public performance and research profile, we need to Indigenise our curriculum more comprehensively and build stronger contributions to UQ’s Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander Research Strategy. Additionally, our staff and student cohorts are not fully reflective of the diversity of the Australian population.

Our strategy will include a focus on making the School of Music a more welcoming and accessible place for Indigenous students, staff and partners. We will continue to seek guidance from ATSISU and other Schools that are further along the path to embedding Indigenous perspectives in their curriculum and make that process a greater priority in 2023. It is important, as we move towards increasingly comprehensive forms of Indigenous engagement, for the School to find new modes of collaboration with Indigenous artists, researchers and partners as we undertake future performance, research and community-focused activities.

2.5 Engagement

The School of Music, by virtue of many of its activities, is a naturally public-facing School with clear pathways for public engagement. COVID-19 has impacted our capacity for certain aspects of engagement, particularly internationally but also regionally.

Going forward, the School’s strategy will be to seek further opportunities to contribute to UQ’s Queensland Commitment. We will also explore a more long-term and strategic approach to building the Friends of Music to build our philanthropic support. Actions to support this strategy include:

• establishing new international connections in alignment with UQ’s strategic focus on the Indo-Pacific

• seeking funding for increased regional engagement across Queensland through ensemble tours, student and staff performance and research opportunities

• reviewing the structure and function of the Friends of Music in collaboration with the Advancement Director.

2.6 Sustainability

The School of Music operates efficiently and responsibly, looking to increase income where possible and strategically deploying bequest funding. Revenue growth is challenging, however, and not sufficient to enable the hiring of new continuing staff, essential for longterm success and workload sustainability. Our capacity to increase enrolments is constrained, with the BA and MMus being the most feasible options for growth. Our strategy is to adopt a first-principles approach, increasing enrolments and developing philanthropic opportunities. We will look to increase enrolments in BA major level 1 courses and increase the proportion of those students who declare for the major, while also increasing enrolments in postgraduate coursework offerings through a more diversified student base, including domestic students.

Actions to support this strategy includes:

• offering bequest-supported outreach programs for future students

• promoting the GCMus to graduates who want further performance training

• diversifying our MMus student population

• working closely with Advancement on support for teaching positions and initiatives such as Corella Recordings.

A second issue impacting our long-term sustainability is our facilities, which have character and build community though they are clearly sub-optimal and over-crowded. In the short term, we will look to teaching and rehearsal spaces outside of the Zelman Cowen building. At the same time, we will continue to advocate for longer-term space solutions as capital funding is released.

2.7 A Distinctive School Identity

Our identity will continue to be shaped by the cumulative impact of our actions, through which we strive to reflect, lead and give back to society. Our distinctiveness is defined by our university-embeddedness, embracing a more intellectually integrated, socially supportive, diverse and highly engaged sense of musical mission. With our students and partners, we take pride in exploring the ways in which music is not just pleasurable but also profound; not so much a luxury, but rather an essential. At the core of our work is a deep sense of gratitude that music is part of our lives and that we have the opportunity to expand its role in the life of our communities.

2.8 UQ Context

The vision for the School of Music is to align even more closely with Faculty of HASS priorities to become more Indigenous, collaborative, global and engaged. We will continue to contribute to the success of the UQ Strategic Plan, delivering soughtafter graduates who are prepared for future success through rich and broad educational experiences. We will continue to be a leading provider of high-quality postgraduate opportunities in music. Our research is increasingly turning toward pressing social challenges, particularly through CAHF, contributions to cultural and artistic knowledge, music technology, psychology and music education. The School will continue to make significant contributions to the Queensland Commitment through its performance engagement and partnerships. In all this, the School will be guided by UQ’s values – deeply committed to delivering for the public good, supporting our people, contributing to reconciliation and embracing different life experiences and perspectives. The rest of this submission explores the performance of the School in more detail and contextualises our strategic priorities.