The Different Beats Survey, 2004

5758 — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0100

By Hans Hoegh-Guldberg (Economic Strategies Pty Ltd)
Last updated: 24 January 2008

The Different Beats survey was designed and edited by Dr Helen Lancaster supported by the Australian Music Centre (AMC). A special issue of AMC’s journal Sounds Australian (No 64, 2005) focused on post-secondary options in music in Australia. It contains eighteen articles each deriving information on particular topics from the survey, preceded by Helen Lancaster’s editorial as guest editor of the issue, and her description of the survey.

The Music Council of Australia gratefully acknowledges Helen Lancaster’s and AMC’s permission to derive statistical tables from the survey results and publish them here. The survey is unique in its scope and contents and together with the original analysis in the Sounds Australian volume deserves the widest possible circulation.

There are two auxiliary files which can be opened in separate windows to allow concurrent reading with the main text. They are the statistical tables and the verbal responses that couldn’t be adequately summarised as statistics. HHG

Contents

Statistical tables
The survey
Programs
Graduate destinations
Technology
Research areas
Delivery modes and group teaching
Generic issues
Gender statistics
Collaboration
Post-graduate and total enrolments
Research – general
Early childhood education
Pedagogy
Western musicology and ethnomusicology
Training issues
Genres
Music technology, again
Sound art
Screen composition
Arts management
Australian Indigenous music

Statistical tables

The original use of the Different Beats survey was to provide material for each author represented in the special issue of Sounds Australian to comment on the basis of his or her professional experience. No attempt was made to present a set of analytical tables to “map” the general picture before tackling the “issues” (as this knowledge base tries to do as a general rule, whether in verbal or numerical form). The present article provides a statistical overview as a supplement to the original articles in the special issue.

As usual in the statistical section of the knowledge base, the tables are shown in a separate file. Readers will find it useful to open the file for reference as each table is mentioned. It opens in a separate window to allow switching from this page to the file, and back. Click on the table numbers on the front page of the file to jump to individual tables.

The original survey results were organised with a separate Microsoft Word file for each question, showing the percentage of universities, TAFE and private colleges that responded, both relative to the total number asked to participate in the survey, and to the total number of institutions that actually responded. Individual responses were recorded in each file for all questions requesting verbal comments or descriptions.

Many of the questions were open-ended. Some of the responses to these questions could be fairly readily summarised. Others revealed such detail and variation that they need to be reproduced in full. This is done in another separate file (verbal responses), which again opens in a separate window. Keep it there for reference if you are generally going through the survey material. To jump to the responses to a particular question within the file, just click on the relevant page number in the front-page contents list.

If more detail is required on other questions, this is available according to Helen Lancaster’s editorial, which states: “With 100 questions in the survey, it is impossible to address them all in this journal. However, the primary issues are highlighted, and the data are available for those who seek the detail.”

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The survey

Different Beats is the largest and most extensive survey ever put to post-secondary music education and training providers in Australia. As stated above, it contains about 100 questions submitted by the eighteen authors represented in the special issue. The survey followed a smaller and less representative survey published in Sounds Australian (No 60, 2002), which demonstrates the commitment of the Australian Music Centre to help improve the knowledge of post-secondary music education in Australia. Helen Lancaster highlights some trends between the two surveys in her editorial.

The first step in planning the survey was to identify which Australian institutions offer awards in music at post-secondary level. Helen Lancaster and the Australian Music Centre came up with a total of 49: 30 universities, 14 TAFE colleges and five private providers. The actual response (Table 1) was 26 universities (87%), nine TAFE colleges (64%), and three private providers (60%). The overall response rate of 78% lends authority to the survey results, especially the university sector. Lancaster states in her description of the survey: “The results are conclusive, sketching a clear picture of the current status of post-secondary music education and training in Australia.”

For a brief history of developments in post-secondary education, especially over the past twenty years, see Lancaster’s editorial, and also her article in this knowledge base.

It may be seen as a possible weakness that the 2004 survey swelled to 100 questions, to meet the requirements of all the authors contributing to the special issue of Sounds Australian. There are indeed some inconsistencies both within and between topics (including response rates to individual questions), and some of the questions are complex, but Lancaster’s careful editing has done much to neutralise these, and the richness of the results speaks for itself.

A final note: The survey results do not reveal individual institutions but are of purely statistical interest. The institutions are nowhere mentioned by name and the lists of individual verbal responses have been randomised to secure anonymity. (1)

The order in which the survey results are presented here follows the somewhat complex sequence of the questionnaire, as set out in the table of contents for this article.

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Programs

Each institution was asked to describe its core activities. This elicited a wide array of responses ranging from listing specific genres to broad aspirations – some of them verging on mission statements. The individual responses (to Question 1) are listed in the verbal responses file (click on the page number (1) in the contents list to jump to the responses). Suffice to say that the range of core activities and perceived missions is extremely wide, even within each of the two main groups of universities/conservatoria and TAFE vocational education colleges. It is impossible to determine from the survey, however, how wide the choice is for students in particular regions, or more generally between metropolitan areas and the rest of the country.

All 38 institutions that responded to the surveys listed the awards offered (Table 2). As already noted, 87% of universities, 64% of TAFE colleges and 60% of private providers identified as offering any post-secondary music awards, responded to the survey request. The 26 universities offered 197 awards including 84 undergraduate degrees, nine certificates (pre-tertiary), and 104 post-graduate doctoral and master’s degrees and graduate diplomas or certificates. Nine TAFE colleges offered 25 certificate courses and 18 undergraduate courses. The private providers mainly offered diplomas and pre-tertiary certificates.

Universities not surprisingly offered the largest average number of awards (almost eight), compared with less than five for TAFE colleges and less than three for the three private providers. The range was wide, especially in the universities of which three offered fourteen to eighteen different awards and one only one. The standard deviation shown in the bottom of Table 2 provides a crude measure of range – crude because the samples are too small to conform to a ‘normal’ statistical distribution. A standard deviation of four for the universities means that about 95% of observations “should” fall between nil at the lower extreme and sixteen at the upper end, given the average of eight.

Undergraduate university awards are with one exception (Associate Degree in Music) Bachelor degrees. These can be general (Bachelor of Arts, Music, Arts (Music), or Education (Music)) or specific, providing degrees such as Bachelor of Arts with bracketed subjects such as Contemporary Music, Music Industry, or Music Theatre, Bachelor of Creative Industries (Intermedia), or Bachelor of Music (Composition, or Music Education, or Music Technology, or Performance, or Popular Performance), or Bachelor of Jazz Studies or Electronic Arts. Adding an Honours degree is more likely to be specific, such as Bachelor of Music (with Honours in areas such as Accompaniment/Repetiteur, Community Music, Composition, Ethnomusicology, Orchestral Playing, or Performance). Finally, some universities offer joint degrees such as Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Music Studies, and Bachelor of Music combined with Bachelor of Commerce, Law, Education, Psychology, or Science). Such joint-degree programs are explored further in Question 3.

Post-graduate university awards show similarly wide ranges within the categories of graduate certificates and diplomas, master’s and doctoral degrees. Vocational qualifications through the TAFE system show less variation, partly because the award system is standardised through VET (Vocational Education and Training) programs. However, as Helen Lancaster points out in her MCA knowledge base paper, TAFE/VET has had a positive impact on articulating the music education system by providing links between school, TAFE and university education (articulation denotes the linking of study paths between different levels of educational institutions).

The full list of awards can be perused in a separate window. According to Question 3, 69% of responding universities, 11% of TAFE colleges and 33% of private providers offered joint programs with other disciplines and institutions. Some are listed in the List of awards file. The responses themselves are listed in the verbal responses file (jump to the right page by clicking the appropriate page link, 3, in the contents list). Several combine bachelor studies in music and teaching/education. Two describe dual sector/articulation arrangements with TAFE. Other cross-overs at university level are with technology, commerce, law, creative arts, and informatics. One university mentions its Bachelor of Electronic Arts as a cross-disciplinary program taught by staff from its music and fine arts areas.

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Graduate destinations

Question 4 of Different Beats established that 85% or 22 of the 26 responding universities formally tracked graduate destinations but only one TAFE college and one private provider did so. The follow-up question, 5, asked the institutions to indicate careers ‘in which you are able to confirm your graduates have been placed.” (Table 3). It was answered by 92% or all but two of the universities, 78% of TAFE colleges and all three responding private colleges. This suggests that knowledge may be obtained even if there are no formal tracking systems for graduate destinations (though one may guess that the quality of the informal information is lower).

Taking all 34 responding institutions as a group, performance is the most common music-related destination (mentioned by 88%), followed by all forms of music teaching (82%), administration and management (68%), music recording and audio engineering (59%), and composition (44%). Smaller groups include production, music retail, and further education, each with between 26% and 21% of responding institutions, followed by music therapy, sound design, music research, and music journalism between 18% and 12%, and music librarianship (6%).

There was also a large ‘all other’ group (53% of responding institutions), including a variety of destinations such as music publishing, radio, TV and video production, the music industry, opera and music theatre production, music management, instrument making, DJs, music lawyers, and marketing and production.

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Technology

This group of questions starts with a general open-ender (Q 6): ‘How is technology used in your courses?’ Nineteen universities (73%) responded that they used information and other technology in a variety of ways, as shown in the file of verbal responses (jump from the front-page contents list to page 5 through the link). Some universities called the study of technology mandatory or an essential component of both teaching and research. Three relatively elaborate responses follow (but the list should be studied in full to avoid bias):

“State of the arts facilities are being created for the study and use of multimedia, media arts and manipulation of technologies in film, light, sound, computer graphics, music composition, video and data projection. We use all of the above in the creation and realisation of performance on campus. Students have access to computer labs, software, instrumentation and equipment for the preparation of project work.”
“Students have access to extensive audio-visual recording and production facilities including non-linear sound and video digital editing suites as well as CD, CD-ROM and DVD authoring. These facilities make it possible for students to prepare work for dissemination via public performances, broadcasts, internet, CD, CD-ROM and DVD.”
“An introductory technology unit is compulsory for all students. Other music technology is integral to the various specialisations. For example composition students are taught the various technologies that are central to their field (e.g. sequencing, synthesis, hard-disk recording and editing, synchronisation to film and video etc). Music production students focus on recording and live sound. Performers focus on technology relevant to their instrument or voice.”

The next question (7) asked whether all students were instructed in use of technology, and if yes, how? Of 24 universities responding to this question, 19 (the same number that answered Question 6) said yes, two said ‘no but ..’ (.. “a range of technology courses are offered”, and “except all students can choose to study recording technology and techniques”), and three said plainly ‘no’ (13%). All eight responding TAFE colleges instructed all students in the use of technology, while one private college said yes, and another ‘no but ..’ (.. “most do it at some stage as an elective”). The individual responses are shown in the verbal responses file (jump from contents list to page 7). The instructions range from introductory courses in equipment use to preparations for full music technology courses. Again, the responses should be studied in full to minimise the risk of obtaining biased impressions. Some are elaborate, especially number 18 in the university list.

Table 4 summarises the subject of student access to technology, starting with Question 7 already discussed above. Students at all universities and private colleges had access to information technology as well as most TAFE students (five of seven colleges responding to the question, with one other TAFE college providing access for specialist students only). Large majorities, especially among the universities, also provided access to specialist music software, and to hardware.

Music was a prerequisite for entry into any music technology program at 42% of universities (11 of 26 responding) and a minority of TAFE and private providers (two of nine and one of three, respectively). However, these responses may correlate better with institutions offering formal music technology courses. Later in the survey (Question 69, see verbal responses file, page 35) we find that 17 universities, seven TAFE colleges and three private providers provided a verbal answer to the question, “What do you consider to be the distinguishing feature(s) of your program(s)/course(s) in music technology?” However, the individual responses suggest that ‘grey areas’ exist, illustrated by one institution’s statement that “we have more music technology than anyone else but do not teach it formally at undergraduate level”. It is unclear both at university and TAFE level whether technology is always taught formally or is just a creative tool included in courses such as composition or recording.

Only 13 universities, three TAFE colleges and two private providers said yes to Question 70: “Do your music technology programs/courses allow for specialisation?” Compare this with 11 universities, two TAFE colleges and one private provider responding to Question 9 asking whether music is a prerequisite for entry. There is at least a suggestion that half or less of the surveyed institutions answered these questions only if they provided separate music technology courses. So while technology permeate the courses, this may happen to a large extent through the provision of software and hardware in the course of general teaching rather than special technology courses.

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Research areas

The main research areas offered at university level in 2003, when the survey was taken, were musicology and performance/creative practice (88% each), composition (81%), technology and music education (73% each), and ethnomusicology (62%). About two-thirds of the universities also offered a wide range of other research areas shown in a footnote to Table 5. The areas were available as research in universities mainly at PhD (88% of institutions), Masters (81%) and Honours (77%) level.

The number of TAFE and private providers offering research opportunities was much smaller – one or possibly two in either group (there is a possible inconsistency in the survey responses between the question on research fields and the question asking where the fields are available as research).

One other expression of the level of research in the music area is the number of faculty members holding terminal (doctoral) degrees (Table 6) – persons who are potentially available as research supervisors. Eighteen of the 26 universities responding to the survey reported a total of 120 persons, 40% of whom did doctorates in musicology, 16% in composition, 10% in ethnomusicology, and 7% each in performance and music education.

Twenty percent didn’t specify the field. Assuming their fields were distributed like those specified, musicology rises to account for almost half (48%) of total persons.

There was only one person with a terminal degree in the TAFE colleges, compared with eight in the two private providers who responded to the question. Their average of four per institution, while way ahead of the TAFE colleges, still falls short of the average of 6.7 for the 18 universities that responded.

The overwhelming proportion of those with terminal degrees (88%) were PhDs, with the remaining 12% spread over six other titles, of which 5% of total degrees were specifically music-related (DMus and DMusA).

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Delivery modes and group teaching

Sixteen universities and two TAFE colleges (62% and 22%, respectively) reported that they had flexible delivery mechanisms in their current delivery practices (Table 7). The individual responses listed under Question 14 (jump from contents reference page 10 in the verbal responses file) show a wide variety of methods including online courses, web delivery, course material on DVD or CD-ROM, video conferencing, email, and other means of providing distance education. Please refer to these detailed responses for a balanced view.

Twelve of the universities and one TAFE college reported on the proportion of music programs and courses offered by distance education. The findings are listed in the bottom of Table 7. They vary widely, with the proportion of programs and courses available for distance education both ranging from 100% to nil. Eight universities (31%) compared results and retention rates between on-campus and distance education: half found no difference, two reported on-campus education was superior and two couldn’t say. Hardly an indictment against distance education, especially in view of the responses to the next question reported below.

Seventeen universities (65%) and two other institutions described the benefits or gains from using flexible delivery mechanisms. The individual answers are in the verbal responses file (page 11). They generally stress advantages of flexibility such as students being able to study at their own pace, enabling non-metropolitan students to participate, higher retention rates for students who for some reason are no longer able to use the on-campus option, benefiting students who work and study concurrently, and making learning more accessible and allowing students to use a variety of delivery modes which promotes better understanding and involvement.

Group teaching is an significant part of performance training for major vocal or instrumental work for most institutions – 65% of universities and 72% of all respondents (Table 8). Only one of 23 universities found it not important. The actual responses to Question 18 (page 12 in the verbal responses file) suggest that most of the group or team teaching occurs in ensemble work and performance practice, masterclasses and instrumental and vocal tuition generally.

Two-thirds of the institutions described the standard format and desired learning outcomes from group teaching (Question 19, verbal response file page 14). This once again shows how expansive and variable post-secondary music education is in Australia. The responses concentrate on formats in particular institutions rather than on desired outcomes, though one university notes that students develop a scholarly, analytical research basis towards the practical performance of music. Another notes that group instruction is necessary in chamber music and other ensembles as part of the task for students to learn to listen and learn from others.

One university combines the advantage of classroom teaching, group learning and flexible delivery as follows:

“1:1 is necessary for instrumental/vocal learning, particularly in dealing with the complex and slowly acquired technical and musical demands of performing. Masterclasses with visitors are offered to expand students’ knowledge of the profession and to increase the range of teaching expertise available to students. Group instruction is necessary in ensembles (chamber music etc) as part of the task for students is to learn to listen to others and to learn from others.
Classroom teaching offers potential for student verbal interaction and group learning of concepts as well as specific skills such as analysis. Flexible delivery via on-line technology offers students the means of interacting with teachers at any hour of the day/night. The submission of homework and the return of same at the student or teacher’s discretion is beneficial to all. It tends to make a lot more work for the teacher but benefits the student greatly.”

Please read the full range of responses to limit bias of understanding.

There was a fair spread of opinion about the extent promotion of group teaching benefited major study students. About one-third of respondents found it significant, another one-third found it had some influence. One-quarter found it of limited significance and a small proportion (6%) to be of no importance. The detailed answers to the question (20) are in the verbal responses file. Click on the reference page 17 on the front page of the file.

The last question on group teaching (21) concerns training opportunities offered to teaching staff (Table 8, panel D). Almost half the 22 responding institutions of all kinds (45%) said what could only be interpreted as ‘none’ or ‘minimal’, 14% as ‘limited’, 27% as ‘some’ and only 9% as ‘significant’. One institution didn’t know.

The 15 universities responding to the question offered relatively better training opportunities in group teaching, interpreted from the verbal responses as 33% ‘none/minimal’, 13% ‘limited’, 40% ‘some’, and 13% ‘significant’.

The third related topic under this heading is peer assessment (Table 9). Twenty institutions reported that peer assessment is contained in any course that has musical practice as its main focus, including 14 universities (54%), three TAFE colleges (33%), and all three private providers.

Peer assessment is mainly specific to performance: 16 responses of a total of 23 given by 19 institutions. Feedback is structured and implemented mainly through feedback sessions (15 of 21 respondents), with critique sheets or report forms accounting for two, informal feedback for one, and other responses for three. Helen Lancaster, however, points out in her description (About the survey) that “whilst data are largely positive, the detail indicates that most institutions conduct such assessment on an informal basis. Only two institutions actually incorporate it into the final assessment process.”

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Generic issues

The next part of the Different Beats survey (Questions 25 to 34) refers to a variety of subjects termed ‘generic’. They include interactions with graduate destinations, ability of music education courses to sustain a musical career, attitudes to repertoire creation versus repertoire repetition, the role of the post-secondary music institution in the local community, and impact of funding issues.

Question 25 explored how the institutions interacted with graduate destinations. The verbal responses file (page 19) shows individual answers, which have been summarised as far as possible in Table 10. Thirteen of 32 responding institutions (41%) said they liaised in a variety of ways with prospective employers, while five (16%) used surveys, two (6%) relied on alumni organisations, and 12 (38%) provided other answers. The detail is best gauged by reading through the verbal responses. Question 26 asked whether the interaction with graduate destinations had changed in the last 10 years, to which 59% said yes (70% of universities and 67% of private providers but only 17% of TAFE colleges). The question didn’t specify the direction of change.

Question 27 asked to which extent the courses assisted students in sustaining a musical career (Table 11). Responses to this question included all but one of the 26 universities who responded at all, as well as six of nine TAFE colleges and all three private providers. Most institutions emphasised the development of career skills and industry focus, and smaller numbers the value of their accredited courses or the recognised quality of the courses.

The verbal responses to Q 27 have not been reproduced but are available according to Helen Lancaster’s editorial. Not unexpectedly, the institutions’ descriptions of their own courses are almost all highly positive. Three of the more detailed responses, generally classified as ‘other’ in Table 11, are reproduced below:

“Graduates of higher education should be equipped to utilise their talents to a high standard of practice, coupled with a spirit of enquiry and a critical language. They should be capable of creating their own performance opportunities from scratch, and have some awareness of industry structures in labour and industry, finance, management and producing. They should be alert to the cultural and political context of their art practice. Students learn to understand and assess the history of their art form, and should be able to multi-skill in order to achieve longevity in the field. In addition, they should learn a safe physical and vocal approach to the work. All of these skills and insights should encourage a sense of reality about the nature of work in the performing Arts. Undergraduates are equipped to undertake higher studies in their field.”
“As the courses are contemporary in their focus, they deal with material in the context of the landscape of contemporary arts practice. Much emphasis is based on producing self-sufficient graduates who are able to effectively operate in an independent fashion within the contemporary employment marketplace. Some element of professional practice is present in all degrees, as is the requirement to engage in community based projects. A balance of written and practical skills is developed and all students have a guaranteed basic fluency in technology.”
“Very difficult to say. We attempt to offer sufficient help in “self help” to all students. It is clear in all our teaching (I believe) that all current students will need to be life-long learners and will need to “add into” their knowledge over the course of their careers. It is also clear to all students that in order to earn an income they will probably (99% of them) need to be flexible in what they can do. The best of them will play in a professional orchestra; the majority of them will gain their income from several sources. This is made clear to them all of the time in their courses, hence the inclusion of a great deal of “technology” in our programs.”

On the question of whether repertoire creation should be encouraged rather than the repetition or reproduction of repertoire, most favoured encouraging creation (Table 12). Fifty-nine percent of responses did so, with another 31% favouring a balance of creation and repetition. Only two institutions favoured repertoire repetition over creation (6%).

Post-secondary music education institutions see themselves as having a strong role in their local communities (Table 13). Eighty-two percent placed significant emphasis on that role, especially among universities (92%) and private providers (100%), compared with 44% of TAFE colleges. Five of six institutions said the level of emphasis had increased during the last 10 years, again especially among universities and private providers with 88% and 100%, respectively (compared with 57% of TAFE colleges, and one TAFE college reporting a decrease).

How institutions relate to their local communities takes a range of forms, of which the most frequent are provision of on-campus events (89%), public hire of their facilities and getting involved with local arts authorities (both 87%), providing off-campus events (79%), participation in local or state festivals (76%), and provision of non-tertiary programs (74%).

The final topic in this section is the impact of funding issues (Table 14). The question was, “In what ways (if at all) has your institution been affected by funding issues?” The most frequent responses were a need to raise non-government funding (76% of all institutions, but 88% of universities), need to recruit fee-paying students (71% of all, 81% of universities), and difficulty in maintaining resources (68% of all, 81% of universities). Other impacts included staff reductions (58% of all and 58% of universities), increased emphasis on research programs (55% overall, 77% of universities), and reduction of programs (37% of all, 35% of universities). TAFE colleges seemed to have less problems with funding issues, except in relation to staff reductions (67%) and reductions of programs (56%).

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Gender statistics

The Different Beats survey was generally relatively unconcerned with conventional statistics but did inquire into matters such as gender ratios (and the number of post-graduates as shown in Table 18, described in a subsequent section). Twenty-two institutions, predominantly universities (19) provided 68 observations on student intake, and 33 on graduates. Several institutions were unable to provide the statistics, especially among TAFE colleges.

Table 15 shows a median female ratio of total student intake of 51% (52% for universities taken alone). As shown in the footnote to the table, the numbers are built up of ratios for particular fields within each institution in a recent year (2002 or 2003) and are associated with fairly substantial standard deviations because some of the total numbers of students or graduates would have been small. No institution reported absolute numbers of males and females rather than gender ratios.

The number of observations for graduates was smaller and the female ratios were larger (60%), but with an even more substantial standard deviation (28%). The main conclusion is that females are probably in a slight overall majority both among students and graduates. It should be possible to develop more decisive statistics on this.

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Collaboration

Questions 36 to 39 explore relationships and partnerships. Table 16 shows that 61% of all institutions (77% of universities) had formal relationships with other disciplines within the same institution, and 39% (46% of universities) with other disciplines outside the institution. There was also extensive relationships with other music institutions locally (63%), nationally (45%), and internationally (69%), again with the highest findings for universities. Other liaisons were with professional music organisations (58% of institutions) and commercial organisations (47%). Half the institutions said the relationships were designed to provide vocational experience. The vast majority of universities (96%) saw an increase in these vocational experience relationships over the past ten years, while only half the responding TAFE colleges thought there had been such an increase.

An open-ended question, 38, explored what relationships had been designed to improve vocational experience. Individual responses are listed in the verbal responses file (jump by clicking on page 21 in the contents list on the front page). The main impression is of a range of practical vocational arrangements with performance companies and commercial companies including studios, music retailers and others. Several institutions mention exchange and other arrangements with overseas institutions. Two universities, one TAFE and one private college mentioned articulation arrangements. For full detail please refer to the individual responses.

Asked whether they encouraged and supported collaborative cross-artform work, 69% of universities, 44% of TAFE colleges and two of the three private providers answered in the affirmative. In total, 63% of all responding institutions reported that the encouraged and supported collaborate cross-artform work (Table 17).

Responding institutions doing so were asked to describe the teaching and research practices, human resources and facilities supporting cross-artform collaboration. Such practices take place at both undergraduate and post-graduate level and was described in great detail, difficult to summarise, in the verbal responses file (jump to page 23 from front page).

The institutions were also asked to describe the essential elements that in their opinion underpin a successful collaborative project from both a commercial and educational perspective. This brought up virtues like clear goals, careful organisation, flexibility, cooperation, dedication, common purpose, teamwork, creativity, lateral thinking, open minds, and as one institution put it, the right to fail. Again, please refer to the actual list in the verbal responses file, page 25.

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Post-graduate and total enrolments

Apart from gender ratios, the survey asked each institution about the total number of post-graduates. Twenty-two universities provided adequate answers. Table 18 shows the total number there to be 906, or an average of 41 per university. The median was 34, with a range of post-graduates from three to 119. The standard deviation was 35, suggesting a skewed distribution across a wide range.

The survey asked another useful question about the ratio of post-graduates to total enrolments, which made it possible to estimate (albeit loosely) total enrolments in these 22 universities (just over 6,000). It has not been possible at this stage to compare this estimate with other statistics, but the survey suggests that few post-graduate students may be found in other music-related post-secondary institutions. No TAFE college reported any, while one private provider indicated one post-graduate in 2003 rising to eight in 2004.

Expanding the estimate for 22 universities to the total number of universities offering music awards (30 according to Table 1) suggests total enrolments in the order of 8,000 or slightly higher, assuming that the averages found in the survey apply to the non-responding universities too.

The survey finally asked how many post-graduates were from the institution itself. The answer was 369, or 41% of total post-graduates. The average and median observations were higher at 47% and 48%, respectively.

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Research – general

Research is clearly a university function. Ninety-two percent of responding universities stimulated research activities, compared with only one TAFE and one private college (Table 19). Helen Lancaster as editor of the survey points out that research is not a normal expectation of TAFE institutions. It is appropriate, therefore, to concentrate on universities. The way these institutions support and organise their research activities is through research centres (35%), individual research (73%), with university (77%) and/or private support (23%). Fifty percent of the universities received Commonwealth grants, 23% State grants, and 23% industry grants.

Activities that could be defined as practice-based research were reported by 81% of the universities, action research by 41%, research into artistic practice by 85%, and artistic practice as research by 77%.

The research overwhelmingly reflects changes in the musical and educational environment, with positive responses from 88% of universities (and from two of the three private providers). Individual responses are shown in the verbal responses file, page 27. Responses vary from ‘very strongly’, ‘extensively’ and ‘completely’ to ‘only at research level’. The most elaborate response follows (but the whole list should be read to provide unbiased context):

“Individual lecturers are free to pursue their own contemporary research interests, including the making and curation of new work. Recent curriculum changes in the area of critical studies in (specific forms) have been introduced in order to cover study of developments in critical theory. Contemporary writers and composers … have been invited onto the campus to create new work with undergraduate students, in the expectation that their views are contemporary and represent best practice.”

Early childhood education

Early childhood and pre-service music education (Table 20) was offered by 27% of the university music schools, but this underestimates the total university involvement because it excludes 35% of universities where it was offered by the school or faculty of education. Helen Lancaster notes in About the survey: “Some institutions acknowledged programs available in Faculties of Education, others noted shared or combined degrees, only a few music departments having the early childhood or pre-service music programs specified by the questions. Some respondents equated early childhood music questions with community classes targeting young children. ...

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The Different Beats Survey, 2004