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More Details on the Music Degree - The Open College of the Arts

To find out more details about the transfer to The Open University see A New Chapter for OCA.

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More Details on the Music Degree

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Back in November 2014, the OCA Trustees took the decision to develop a full honours degree in music. Following this announcement, a planning team met earlier this year and an outline degree specification was agreed and then subsequently passed for development by a board at UCA. We can now announce that the OCA Trustees have agreed to the commissioning of the first two additional courses:
1) Foundation Course in Music (Introductory) – This is an essential component of the degree pathway, widening access and providing a solid basis with which to start undergraduate study in music. Presented and priced in line with the other OCA Foundations courses, this course will gradually build up a sound knowledge of music theory (up to around Grade 5/6 level), help to develop critical listening and analysis skills, and provide the practical skills which are fundamental to further successful musical study.
2) Stylistic Techniques (Level 1/HE4 – 40 credits) – This course will compliment and build on the existing Level 1 music courses Composing Music 1 and Music: From the Present to the Past. It will focus on the study of styles utilised throughout musical history from the Medieval and Renaissance through to the 20th century and the present day, learning, analysing and applying a variety of musical and stylistic techniques. The skills and knowledge learnt in this course will be extremely useful to continuing music students, regardless of their specialism.
These two new courses will be available to study soon in the forthcoming academic year. Full details will be made available as soon as possible.
Students who are currently studying, or have completed, Level 2 (HE5) music courses with the OCA are encouraged to include Stylistic Techniques in their degree plan as it will lead on to further Level 2 (HE5) study in the next new music courses to be announced and written in the 16/17 academic year, followed ultimately by the Level 3 (HE6) courses to complete the available music degree pathways.
Chris Lawry. OCA Tutor


Posted by author: ChrisLawry

9 thoughts on “More Details on the Music Degree

  • I understood the music degree would only be available to new students, but you say that students who are currently studying or have even completed Level 2 music courses are encouraged to take the Stylistic Techniques course as it will lead on to further Level 2 study in the next new music courses. Does this mean it will be possible for current students at either Level 1 or 2 to switch to a full degree in music, even if they have studied another subject as one of their Level 1 courses?

    • Yes, that will be possible in some cases Elaine. The key is that the student will have to gain at least 80 credits at level 1 and all 120 credits at level 2 in music.

  • Hello everyone. I am just guessing that the Foundation Course (Introductory) will be for new students. I am at the end of Composing Music 2 – and maybe it would have helped me a bit, especially the first year, to become fluent in the English vocabulary for music.

    • Hi, having started with Composing 1 I’m also coming to the end of Composing 2. The new music courses are very welcome but do pose something of a dilemma for existing students. I’d always originally intended to do Composing 3 next – when I started it wasn’t possible to do a music degree through OCA.
      Now it is – which is great, bit I’ve been told that Composing 3 can’t be part of the degree structure as its too big a module. However I can’t really compare its value and interest (to me personally) with any other level 3 music courses as they haven’t been developed yet !
      I suppose I could always ‘play for time’ and do ‘Stylistic Techniques’ next as it could be both interesting and relevant and keep me within the degree structure- on the other hand I’m quite keen to crack on with the composing. Any suggestions / any one else facing a similar situation ?

      • Hi James, I can appreciate your current predicament. Composing 3 will be revised as the level 2 and 3 courses are cleared and commissioned, but unfortunately we can’t give the full details as yet.
        That said, if you’re planning on following the music degree pathway, Stylistic Techniques will be a good course for you regardless, as it will follow on to higher level courses and will contain very useful information and skills for composing, arranging and orchestration.
        I know there will be other extra curricular opportunities for composition study available too in due course (email me or find me on the forums for further details) so that might help too.

  • Hi Jorge, you’re quite right, it’s aimed at new students and a transition course to higher education study. As you mention, it will he a great way for students to familiarise themselves with musical terminology.

  • Hi Chris, I’ve just completed composing 2 so from the conversations above I can imagine signing up for Stylistic Techniques sometime in the next academic year whilst we wait to hear what the level 3 courses will be. I’ve also got credits from OU music courses which I’d been planning to blend in to gain a creative arts BA. Do you know whether these OU credits will be able to be transferred to the new Music degree please?
    Thanks,
    Vicki

    • Hi Vicki,
      You can usually transfer HE credits via Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) as long as the content of the course credits transferred are mapable, or directly related, to the content of the degree you are transferring them into.
      Having transferred credits into my undergraduate degree (in the other direction though) I know there are quite a few rules to this though, you can find a APL guide here: http://www.oca.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/APL_OCA_230115.pdf
      Either way, I’d recommend phoning head office and speaking to Stephanie Gillott, the Academic Registrar.
      Hope this helps.

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