3.3.3 Resources

3.3.3.1 Funding and expenditure

School operating income is made up of Commonwealth funding, tuition fees, and internal contributions, with irregular minor contributions from ticketed events, asset disposals, and other small transactions. Restricted income includes research, scholarships and donations. UQ’s financial management strategy is such that School budgets are managed as components of their parent Faculty’s budget as a whole.

Music’s external revenue (before internal transfers) peaked at over $7.4M in 2019 before falling to $5.8M in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. External revenue has recovered over time and is forecast to be slightly under $7M for 2022. After internal transfers, Music is forecast to have an operating deficit for 2022 of $870K (17.4% of all expenditure).

As is the case for most music institutions in higher education, the UQ School of Music faces income-to-cost ratio challenges arising from the need to deliver intensive performance training. We therefore work within a constrained and disciplined budget environment. The fundamental economic challenge faced by music is the amount of one-to-one instruction required to achieve excellence in performance. A related problem is that music institutions rarely enjoy the ‘pyramid’ structure that many other Schools have, with large and cost-efficient first-year courses gradually giving way to smaller and less cost-efficient later-year courses.

The School’s ability to grow is constrained by its resources and facilities. We lack a major performance venue and do not have access to enough appropriate spaces for the practical elements of music training, or diverse research activities. Given the broad range of activity the School undertakes from a small staffing base, overall capacity also constitutes a major challenge. Each discipline in the School would benefit from further staff appointments to alleviate pressure and support further growth. The School is committed to maintaining its core identity of interconnected musical disciplinary diversity, but new permanent appointments are extremely challenging under current funding arrangements. Our strategy going forward must, therefore, prioritise income growth where possible if we are to expand the number of continuing staff to support our disciplines.

Dr Graeme Morton:

• Australian Council for Educational leaders, Inspiring Educator Award (2020).

Dr Simon Perry:

• UQ Award for Excellence in Research

Higher Degree Supervision (2014)

– one of two awarded that year.

Performance staff are in high demand for external teaching engagement in masterclasses, competition adjudication and teaching around Australia and beyond.

Staff regularly access funding to support teaching knowledge and practices. For example, Dr Klein received $50,000 through an ITaLI Fellowship to investigate multidisciplinary collaboration in the BA (2017). Dr Broughton was twice awarded a UQ ResTeach Award (2014, $9,505; 2015, $21,123) for research support to enable specialist teaching by research-intensive staff. She also obtained two HASS Active Learning Pathways Project (ALPP) grants (2017, 2018) to work alongside and learn from teaching peers in the Faculty, senior academics and educational design experts.

3.4.3 Students

Before the COVD-19 pandemic, the School contributed to the education of approximately 325 Equivalent Full-time Student Load (EFTSL) each year. EFTSL fell to 250 in 2020 and has steadily recovered to just below 300 in 2022.

Undergraduate enrolments comprise approximately three-quarters of the School’s EFTSL but have been softening as a proportion of all EFTSL during the pandemic because of faster rates of recovery in postgraduate coursework and HDR enrolments. Within the undergraduate cohort, the BMus(Hons) contributes slightly more EFTSL than the BA cohort.

The next largest cohort is in postgraduate coursework, which has seen tremendous growth in the MMus from 3.75 EFTSL in 2012 to 51 EFTSL in 2022.

Postgraduate coursework EFTSL recovered to 2019 levels in 2021 and continued to grow in 2022. Total postgraduate coursework EFTSL has doubled from 2016 to 2022: the School’s 10 year upward trajectory in postgraduate coursework EFTSL is second in the Faculty of HASS at 58%, exceeded only by the School of Education at 60%. As a proportion of total HASS postgraduate coursework EFTSL, the School’s contribution is a modest but positive 5% (in comparison, the School’s operating budget is approximately 2% of HASS total budget).

Comparing the School’s EFTSL trends to those for the wider Faculty demonstrates the School is performing well in difficult circumstances. HASS undergraduate EFTSL has also fallen from a high watermark in 2014, though post2020 recovery is less consistent than in Music, with current HASS undergraduate EFTSL at a ten-year low.

The HDR cohort is discussed later in this submission.

Overall, coursework EFTSL trends are positive. Undergraduate EFTSL is steadily recovering from the “double-drop” in 2020 caused by the high school cohort dip (a delayed pipeline effect from the introduction of a preparatory year in Queensland primary schools 12 years prior, causing a year’s cohort to split across two years), and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Student-staff ratios for the School of Music are significantly lower than the Faculty of HASS average. This is caused by several factors, including the higher level of casualised teaching required to support one-to-one performance teaching and other constrained class sizes, such as those taking place in the studio (maximum capacity 12), the computer lab, and the keyboard lab (both maximum capacity 16).

Retention of students who commence in the BMus(Hons) single degree varies significantly from year to year when compared with the far larger BA single degree, exceeding 90% in 3 of the previous 5 years.

The standard definition of retention, however, is that students are enrolled in any program at the same university in the following year. Within the School, there is sometimes significant non-retention within the BMus(Hons) program, where students remain at UQ but change to the BA or another undergraduate program. For example, of the 62 students who commenced the BMus(Hons) in 2016, in addition to the 13 who were no longer at UQ in 2017, another 6 had left the BMus(Hons) program to study a different degree at UQ. There has also been an upswing in the number of students choosing to exit early after 3 years with the Bachelor of Music Studies (BMusSt).

The demographics of the BMus(Hons) student cohort have been largely consistent across the past ten years: in Semester 1, 2022, the cohort is predominantly domestic (95%), female (70%) and full-time (92%, up from a low in 2020 of 89.1%). The proportion of low socioeconomic status students fell to 10.1% in 2019, and decreased further in 2020 to 7.9%, while students from regional and remote areas (as defined by the Federal government) remains steady at around 20%.

International students have increased over time to 22% of the student cohort in Semester 1, 2022. The largest cohort of international students in the School is in the MMus program, which is predominantly international (90%), female (85%) and full-time (94%). The secondlargest international student cohort is in the BA, including dual degrees.

Other Undergraduate

Bachelor of Music (Honours) (including duals)

Bachelor of Arts (including duals)

Other Postgraduate Coursework

Higher Degrees by Research

Master of Music

Australian Indigenous student participation rates are low, with 7 undergraduate students, mostly enrolled in the BA, identifying as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islanders in Semester 1, 2022.

• Bachelor of Arts Popular Music and Technology major - 3 students

• Bachelor of Arts Music major - 2 students

• Bachelor of Music (Honours) - 2 students

3.4.4 Student Voice

3.4.4.1 SECaT Results

The School of Music consistently performs strongly in SECaTs, with over 80% of students rating Music courses as outstanding or better than satisfactory in 8 of the past 9 years. In 2021, Music was ranked 8th highest out of the 30 schools at UQ.

SECaT teacher results are also consistently strong, but the School finds it challenging to get feedback on all teachers because of small class sizes, especially in performance studies.

3.4.4.2 Surveys

The 2022 student and alumni survey results inform and support the School’s vision of university-embedded music teaching and learning. Broadly, the qualitative analysis of the data suggests that the concepts held by participants to be most influential on their experiences include the overall environment of the School and UQ and the influences of specific people, courses and prior experiences.

The most influential aspects of the broader environment of the School and UQ included size and atmosphere of the institution, opportunities for breadth of study, and the reputation and quality of the institution. The majority of responses indicate a positive orientation to these themes. More particularly, the most prominent themes reflect the positive influence of specific people and objects of study on participants.

The data suggest that current undergraduate students value being able to study music in a broader university context with its additional opportunities, including the possibility of research training. Most students rated being able to take music and non-music courses concurrently as important or very important and they flagged the value of combinations of courses that were not offered elsewhere, such as the School’s dual-degree offerings.

Some responses also valued specialisation. Qualitative feedback singles out specialist aspects of the School, including performance opportunities and music-teacher preparation. The high quality of teaching was also a feature, with frequent references to individual teachers.

Some responses place value on the School’s co-operative, friendly, supportive atmosphere. Given the School’s smaller-scale but diverse organisational makeup, students’ experiences are far more likely to be context-dependent than might be the case in disciplines involving large cohorts undergoing relatively consistent experiences. Online learning is a good example – students’ experiences may have far less to do with the modality than with their relationship to the instructor (whether lecturer or one-to-one teacher).

A noteworthy feature of the data was the value placed on the now discontinued Kodály training component of musicianship (largely inactive since 2010) and the Master of Music Therapy degree (discontinued in 2013). The School continues to receive frequent enquiries about both, and both arose as themes in the student surveys. While the School is exploring mechanisms for better connecting and partnering with the Kodály musicianship training community, the resumption of music therapy at UQ is unlikely. After an extensive consultation process in 2018 and 2019, a business case was developed but was found to be financially unsustainable under current funding models.

3.4.5 Student Success

The UQ School of Music is proud of its students’ success across a wide range of measures. QILT data indicates UQ was second in Australia in 2021 for full-time employment in Music and Performing Arts, on the basis of a low response rate (70% of 10 responses).

Our students have an enviable rate of success in entering annual Australian Youth Orchestra programs and the Queensland Youth Orchestras (11 students in multiple programs across 2022). A high percentage of postgraduate students successfully enter the prestigious Australian National Academy of

Music (8 places since 2018). Third-year student In Yi Chae is Concertmaster of Queensland Youth Symphony and performed a concerto as soloist this year.

Our students routinely enjoy success in nationally prominent music competitions. At the 2022 Australian Concerto and Vocal Competition, UQ pianist Jeremy Sun and singers Jacalyn Adcock and Jia-Peng Yeung won the top three prizes, and alum Sean Burke won Most Promising Brass Player.

Many graduates have gone on to further study internationally. Recent examples include:

Eleanor Hill (violin), Master of Arts at the Royal Academy of Music and recipient of Lord Mayor of Brisbane grant for overseas study; Cassandra Slater (flute), Master of Music at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar; and William Shi (piano), Doctorate of Music at the Eastman School of Music.

A brief list of notable alumni:

• Michael Bradshaw, BMus(Hons) 2011 and PhD 2018, Music staff member Sydney Conservatorium High School, previously Teaching and Conducting Assistant at the Kodály Institute of the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music.

• Sarah Collins, BMus(Hons) 2005 and PhD 2010, winner of the 2019 McCredie Musicological Award from the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Lead Chief Investigator on ‘The Cultural and Intellectual History of Automated Labour’, an ARC Discovery Project, 2021-2024)

• Simon Hewett, BMus(Hons) 1997, former Principal Conductor of the Hamburg Ballet, current Director of Music and Conductor of the Queensland Youth Symphony, and winner of the 2021 Vice-Chancellor’s Alumni Excellence Award

• Paul Hodge, BMus(Hons) 2008 and PhD 2016, composer of international awardwinning off-Broadway production Clinton: The Musical

• Dami Im, BMus(Hons) 2009, singersongwriter and Australia’s representative at Eurovision 2016

• Dane Lam, BMus(Hons) 2006, (current staff member), Principal Conductor of the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra and Associate Music Director and Resident Conductor of Opera Queensland

• Timothy Munro, BMus(Hons) 1999, winner of three Grammy Awards and the inaugural Paula and Tony Kinnane Musician in Residence at the School of Music in 2017

• Joseph Twist, BMus(Hons) 2003 and PhD 2010, established composer of concert, film and television music.

3.4.6 Programs

3.4.6.1 Bachelor of Music (Honours)

The BMus(Hons) is distinctive in the Australian tertiary music education landscape for its integration of Honours and is central to the School’s differentiation strategy. The degree provides extensive training in performance, composition, and other music disciplines for students with a strong practical foundation in Western art music prior to commencement of the program. At the same time, it provides students with an opportunity to connect their personal experience of music with the wider world of thinking and ideas through its integrated research training and the School’s connections to the broader University.

3.4.6.1.1 Core

Since the 2020 curriculum changes, the BMus(Hons) has a vertical three-year spine of compulsory core courses rather than a front-loaded block, allowing students to take elective sequences (such as in popular music, technology and music psychology) and build depth in adjacent music disciplines. This design facilitates a stimulating interactive environment and interface between students from different programs, as well as creating pathways for students to develop expertise in more than one area to take on more diverse Honours projects. By working versatility into curriculum design more explicitly, students can better acquire transferable skills, without compromising core and foundational aspects of professional music training.

From 2023, composition will be offered as a specialisation akin to instrumental or voice studies from 1st year instead of Semester 2 of second year to accommodate student demand. Composition students will participate in performance activities, particularly ensembles.

Changes to the core musicianship and musicology sequences are discussed below in the BA Music major section, as they are core to both programs but constitute a larger proportion of the major than of the BMus(Hons).

3.4.6.1.2 Performance

The BMus(Hons) is distinctive for its active performance profile, elements of which are discussed elsewhere in this submission. The majority of students who enrol in the degree do so in order to further their instrumental or vocal performance skills. The distribution of the cohort by instrument group has been relatively stable over the past five years, and the overall cohort has recovered to prepandemic levels (125 students, compared to the ten-year average of 126.9 students).

leading to ever-increasing volumes of coursework project supervision. Our curriculum serves many ends and purposes, with branding and program design requiring clarification to support student recruitment and student outcomes.

Operational constraints (such as the restrictively small number of 8 student practice rooms available in the School of Music and the high cost of providing the one-to-one tuition required for practical study of an instrument or the human voice) mean that growth in the BMus(Hons) cohort results in deleterious impacts on the quality of the student experience. For that reason, future growth in the student cohort needs to come from the BA and the MMus programs –especially the latter, given the strong growth to date in its international student cohort over the past 10 years.

Emerging priorities in Teaching and Learning therefore include:

• more comprehensively embedding Indigenous perspectives across the curriculum

• maintaining the current level of recruitment to the BMus(Hons) while improving recruitment of higher quality students (ATAR of 83 or higher)

• increasing enrolments in BA major level 1 courses and increasing the proportion of those students who declare for the major

• promoting the dual degrees and all preservice teacher preparation pathways

• increasing enrolments in postgraduate coursework offerings through a more diversified student base including domestic students

• enhancing research training in the BMus(Hons) in sustainable ways

• philanthropic support for Corella Recordings to sustain and grow our recording label.

The School has also identified a need to better communicate the purpose and value of its programs externally. Building on digital outreach to music teachers during the pandemic, the Head of School is developing a plan to make regular visits to schools as a core duty.