During the three years of a Music Degree at Oxford, you will have the chance to approach the subject in a number of different ways. Alongside core modules in analysis and music history, you are able to direct your studies towards performance skills, theory, history or composition. There is a wide range of options to choose from in later years as you follow your specific interests. Options available may vary year on year but in the past have ranged from Strauss’s Last Decade to Global Hip Hop. In Music, students have a degree of control over the methods used to assess them – choosing between practical recitals or written portfolio work – alongside compulsory written exams.

Univ welcomes a small cohort of Music students and works hard to make them feel at home in the close-knit College environment. Wherever possible, students are given a room with a piano or keyboard. The College also has music practice rooms, which all students are welcome to reserve and use. Music at Univ is a significant part of College life, both as an academic subject and a communal activity. Univ is home to an active and high quality choir that performs concerts, makes recordings and goes on tour regularly. In any given term there will usually be a varied and lively music scene in college with numerous concerts, recitals and open-mic nights.

There is a wealth of information about the Music course structure, possible option choices, and admissions criteria on the University of Oxford’s main website, available at ox.ac.uk

Any undergraduate degree at Oxford provides you with a wide variety of transferable skills and therefore Univ’s students progress to a diverse range of careers. For some, their undergraduate degree leads to academic research, industrial research or teaching. For many, their future career, for instance in business, government or the charitable sector, is defined less by the subject they studied and more by the skills they acquired. Oxford’s Careers Service provides destination statistics for graduates.

Resources

If you are considering applying for Music, a number of resources you might find useful to explore beyond the school curriculum can be found on Univ’s Staircase12 pages, including the Reading Bank and Resource Hub.

BBC Radio 3 has some great programmes that helps you listen to music critically; for example, Composer of the Week which you can listen to at bbc.co.uk