Music inside, outside and around the curriculum: Reflections from the St Andrews Experience

The University of St Andrews organises its music provision in a rather different way from any other UK higher education institution: we are not a conservatoire, nor a university with a music degree, nor an institution where music is exclusively extra- curricular. Though there has been no music degree at St Andrews since the 1980s, engagement with music among the student body as a whole – both within and outside the curriculum – is stronger than ever.

Some of the factors underpinning St Andrews’ music provision are fortuitous, some the result of deliberate choices. The University’s high academic standards habitually generate talented undergraduate musicians, even before the Music Centre’s recent strategic push to recruit such students. The small size and geographical isolation of St Andrews makes students more likely to engage in extra-curricular activity within rather than outside the University, and requires us to be proactive in attracting high- quality specialist tutors. The modular structure of the Scottish degree allows students to take individual music courses without committing to an entire programme. A legacy from an alumna has enabled the construction of the multi-award-winning £15m Laidlaw Music Centre.

Our paper will articulate and explore three principles underpinning music in St Andrews: the co-dependence of curricular and extracurricular provision; the porousness of the relationship between the University and the local community; and how students ‘self-identify’ as music students, whatever their actual programme of study.

External assessors from the Royal Academy of Music and Edinburgh University who conducted the University’s review of the Music Centre in 2022 concluded that St Andrews’ success in ‘defin[ing] ... an attractive space between whole-degree and recreational music ... has significance for the whole sector [and] deserves to be widely publicised’. We agree, and believe this conference offers the perfect opportunity to share our experience with colleagues from across the sector.