2007:28 R

Evaluation of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in music at Swedish universities and university colleges

For the audit, the National Agency employed six external experts from Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway, one of which was a postgraduate student and one an undergraduate student. This assessment team visited five institutions between May and October 2006. Tommy Dahlén from the National Agency was the team´s secretary on these visits.

The report is in two parts. The first part consists of the National Agency´s decisions and reflections, which are based on the assessment team´s report. The second part is the assessment team´s report and consists of general impressions and recommendations, as well as institution-specific descriptions, impressions and recommendations. The assessment team alone is responsible for the contents of the second part.

The assessment team notes that the programmes fulfil the quality requirements for higher education, both in terms of the content of the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and in terms of the teaching. The main elements of the subjects are generally well represented in the course curricula. Teachers show great involvement in their work, following developments in their subjects and, to varying degrees, pursuing their own artistic research and artistic development.

However, the assessment team also notes that there are problems, some of which are serious enough potentially to threaten, in the medium term, the programmes´ fulfilment of higher education requirements. The most striking overall weakness has to do with the extent of teaching and the often pressured working situation of the teachers. Another conspicuous feature is the uneven gender distribution among teachers. Additionally, many of the education environments are too small for both the undergraduate and the postgraduate programmes. This small scale risks undermining the quality of the programmes.