Charlotte Fetherston gives her thoughts on the recent events and actions at the Australian National University…
A couple of weeks ago, musicians all around Australia were buzzing with news that ANU has announced a major restructuring of its music courses from 2013, involving the removal of one-on-one lessons and harmony lectures, and many staff redundancies (accompanied by the option to reapply for jobs in open applications). There was also something in the air about tutelage via video link from teachers at major American institutions? It seemed to me that this university had become blind to the basic requirements of a performance music degree – and had effectively doomed its own future as a music school of high calibre.
After reading a couple of articles published by the Australian and the Canberra Times, it looks like changing the Bachelor of Music degree will enable $1.3 million of the university’s yearly deficit to be wiped out (it now stands at $2.7 million). Universities are businesses, and when they are hugely in deficit, they must recover from it. We have see cost-cutting appearing in universities all over the world; in fact, earlier this week there was a protest against staff cutbacks at the University of Sydney (the police were even involved). The ANU’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ian Young mentioned that the cutbacks had been in the books for years, and were “accelerated by financial circumstances.” So, as the Canberra Times reported on May 3:
The school’s 23 academic positions and nine general staff positions have all been spilled, and existing staff will now be forced to reapply for new positions under the structural changes. Ten of the academic staff will lose their jobs. It is not yet clear how the restructure will affect the nine full-time general staff, nor how it will affect the 40 part-time specialist staff and tutors.
City News has recently released an article (May 10) stating that Head of School Adrian Walter has currently been instructed to take leave, as he is finding it difficult to “work with the university over the issue of sackings and restructurings.” Professor Walter has been criticised for siding with the university rather than his school during this process, though it now appears that he was in fact trying to keep on the good side of the university, or risk losing the music school altogether.
Let us take a look at the course of the institution in its short history, provided by information on the ANU website. The ANU itself was established in the 1940s by the government as the postgraduate and research institution, incorporating undergraduate degrees in the 60s. Within that decade, the idea came from the government that Australia’s capital city should have a music school for performance and practice: thus, the Canberra School of Music was established in 1965, and arts school was established in 1976, and in 1987 the two schools combined. In 1992, this combined institute became part of the ANU. The music school’s founding Director was the violinist and conductor Ernest Llewellyn, who stated that:
In setting out a plan for the establishment of a School of Music in Canberra it is of the utmost importance that a comparable level be maintained. It is most necessary that the school provide, at the very beginning, a director and staff of the highest qualities in their particular spheres, and that imagination and flexibility of planning and operation be ensured for progressive development.
What Llewellyn did was make sure he had high-level staff, with a strong focus on the training of individuals in performance. Alongside this, he also developed the Canberra-based National Symphony Orchestra (established in 1950). The music school soon became a feeding-pool into the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, which needed the high-level students joining its ranks, and also needed the pull of jobs available within the music school to attract highly skilled musicians to the city.
Looking at Llewellyn’s comments, it seems that training of specialised musicians was the main initiative of this institution. What will it mean if this is now taken away? The same Canberra Times article presented this statement:
As part of the restructure announced today, the enrolment in the school will no longer be confined to only high-performing students, which, the university hopes, will lead to a greater student intake.
Sounds like, as some put it, a glorified TAFE institution. By lowering the entry standards, the university will make more money, but the quality of musical life (in terms of things like competition and peer inspiration, as well as individual focus) will be negatively affected. As Yasmin Masri writes on her online petition:
The changes mean that new music students will lose access to one-on-one tuition and dedicated theory classes. Students will be given an allowance to purchase tuition privately – which will only cover half of what is currently available.
So students will have to fork out for half of the many lessons they need, and will miss out on harmony lectures, which, in my view, is the equivalent of withholding biology classes to fledgling medical students!
When I imagine the reality of the ANU’s proposal, I visualise an empty, run-down building, devoid of a sense of musical community. While this is a rather dramatic thought, I came to reflect on what has been important to me during my university studies. I now see that it is integral to have an appropriate, supportive teacher, one who is confident and secure in their position at the institution. The teacher’s physical presence is mandatory, both for mentoring, and to fix gaps in technique and thought processes. Secondly, a representation of high standards within a university, and students who can learn from each other, is highly important. These factors played a major part in my selection of a tertiary education provider, and I believe that they shaped, and to continue to shape, my development as a thinking musician.
Some hope for the school is that the ACT Legislative Assembly have backed a motion of support, and recognise the music school’s importance to the community and to Australian music making (high school education and outreach programmes etc.).
If you want to voice your opinion, support current ANU students, or simply be aware of what’s happening, you can add yourself to an ongoing event on Facebook named SAVE OUR DEGREE, and support an online petition at: http://www.communityrun.org/petitions/savetheanuschoolofmusic-1
At the time of writing, this petition – which is to be presented to the Vice-Chancellor – already had 16,207 signatures.
It seems that the university has gone back on the morals on which the music school they inherited was built upon, and they have essentially driven high-level music at tertiary and possibly professional levels out of Australia’s capital city. It wish the students good luck, and that the board of directors realise what they have done to their city, their university, and future musicians of Australia.