Which college comes out best in new UK music rankings?
NewsThe Complete University Guide is out this morning.
It ranks the following as best for music.
1 University of Cambridge
2 Oxford
3 Southampton
4 University of Manchester
5 Sheffield
6 Durham
7 Leeds
8 Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London)
9 Royal Holloway, London
10 Kings College, London
11 University of Birmingham
12 Surrey
13 Bristol
14 Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester
15 York
16 Edinburgh
17 Royal Academy of Music, London
18 Bangor
19 Queen’s University, Belfast
20 Glasgow
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (Birmingham City University) is at 21, Trinity Laban is ranked at 24, the Royal College of Music 25, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland 26. Goldsmiths comes in at 47, Rose Bruford College at 55.
Full data here.
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (Birmingham City University) is in place 21, but not mentioned! Please correct this
No mention of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff
For very good reason… It’s crap to study and work there
How the hell do non music school university’s rank higher in music than a dedicated prestigious conservatory like the Royal Academy of Music. This list is nonsense.
Absolutely! Are these lists made by people who live in Outer Mongolia?
Because it’s not a listing of performance institutions, it’s a listing of undergraduate academic institutions – one subject among many. Its methodology is literally one click away – it ranks on research and job prospects rather than quality of instrumental or vocal tuition.
Many people do a general or academic music undergrad, get loads of practical experience, then do a performance post-grad at one of the specialist colleges.
When you are a Conservatory of Music and come up way down the list, something is really wrong.
Depends on the criteria.
why is this such a sacred word for you? words are just words. Academy is not worse for one.
This (seemingly arbitrary) ranking list would appear to have been compiled by the same idiot who wrote from the bank to Viktoria Mullova (See entry relating to Bank becoming tangled up in Bach)
What criteria were used for this shambles and who has perpetrated it. Surely recognised Conservatoires would (generally) be ranked much higher than certain Universities which have non-specialist music departments? Just a thought as a now retired professional performer at a pretty high level.
The scores are based on 4 categories:-
Entry standards
Student satisfaction
Research quality
Graduate prospects
If you click on the latter you will probably find your Alma Mater ranked higher there than in the overall score!
These kind of rankings, that so many are fond of, are useless.
As far as the UK is concerned, different establishments had different strengths. In my day (OK, OK, yes, I know), it was the RNCM for singing, upper strings and piano, the Guildhall for singing and brass, the RAM for strings, the RCM for piano and woodwinds.
Universities (apart from Lancaster, which counted Heather Slade-Lipkin and Craig Sheppard as their piano teachers and who offered a 50/50 performance and theory/history degree) were mostly academic.
How can you compile a comparative list of establishments with completely different missions?
The Good University Guide has a separate section for ‘Arts, Drama and Music’ colleges, headed by Guildhall, RCSSD, RAM, RNCM, RCS in that order.
If you follow the links and look at the actual tables they make much more sense and are nothing like the list on the front page here!
relax, its a university guide…
What about RWCMD?
The beauty of this establishment is that this abbreviation actually looks like a word in that country’s language.
I’m afraid this ranking, like most similar rankings are what is technically known as “complete bollocks”. Comparing courses in performance with those in musicology, throwing in A level grades, satisfaction scores, and research quality, with bizarre weightings between them, it all adds up to nonsense.
And what on earth has a photo of Kings College Chapel got to do with it ?
Cambridge comes in at No.1 in this list. King’s is a constituent college of Cambridge University. King’s can claim a rather impressive musical tradition going back several centuries. Judging by the photo they also have several pianos. Join the dots.
Rankings are a bit stupid, and this list is obviously not for performing arts.