Completed Projects

Polifonia

Since its launch in 2004, the ERASMUS Network for Music ‘Polifonia’ has proactively addressed European higher education policy issues from the perspective of higher music education (HME).

The External stakeholders Working Group

Musicians’ unions, employers’ organisations and professional organisations formed the external stakeholders group within the second cycle of “Polifonia”. For the first time such a wide representation of experts from the music profession were brought together with the higher music education sector at a European level.

Objectives

The main objectives of the external stakeholders group were:

To evaluate the professional relevance of the work being done in “Polifonia”
To provide information on the lates trends and changes in the music profession, and discuss with the training institutions what kind of implications these may have on teaching and learning in higher music education institutions
To promote the dialogue between higher music education institutions and the music industry, so that higher music education institutions can be assisted in their ongoing reflection on the professional relevance of their study programmes
To discuss ways how the dialogue between education and music industry can be intensified and made more beneficial to individual higher music education institutions (such as student placements and creative partnerships)
To identify, analyse and disseminate examples of good practice for such creative partnerships to higher music education institutions

In order to ensure that the issues in relation to the profession were discussed from a European perspective, the choice was made to include European and international organisations only, so that a European-wide view was taken from the start instead of discussing issues brought forward by national organisations with national or regional interests only and therefore with a limited relevance to the majority of the partnership.

Outcomes

The outcomes of the group’s work were:

Feedback of the external stakeholders was collected and produced in a report called Impressions of ‘Polifonia’- Feedback by ‘Polifonia’ External Stakeholders Panel
Several meetings of the external stakeholders group resulting in recommendations on the work being done in “Polifonia”
A ‘Handbook for Work Placements in Higher Music Education Studies in Europe’, a practical document for ERASMUS-coordinators and other management staff in higher music education institutions and organisations in the music profession on how to set up and sustain European-level work placements with examples of good practice. The Handbook can be downloadable below.