In the second of our series Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) describes why they have been shortlisted for the UK’s Outstanding Entrepreneurial University of the Year.

The RNCM trains world-leading student musicians from 60+ countries around the world to lead and shape the music industry of the future, and recognises that music graduates not only need the highest level of world class tuition in their discipline (vocal, instrumental, or composition tuition, in styles including classical, popular music, folk and jazz), but also the skills needed for self-employment.

“Graduate outcomes data consistently shows that creative arts graduates are the most likely of all degree disciplines to embark on freelance (self-employed careers)…”

All undergraduate students undertake independent creative projects (e.g. putting on a concert, going on tour, recording an EP, designing school workshops), placements in the music industry, can apply every year for the RNCM Creative Innovators Award for professional experience schemes, and can be part of the professional engagements database to undertake paid work locally and nationally.

“All degree programmes including training in digital skills, finance, tax, project management, marketing, budgeting, recording and editing, and website creation and management.”

In 2005, the RNCM was the only conservatoire to receive a substantial grant for a new CETL Research Centre for the Vocational Training of Musicians, which focussed on employability and portfolio careers and had a programme of ‘Supporting Professional Studies’ – a bespoke strand of the curriculum with a wide range of industry placements, specialist pathways and student-led projects. The RNCM was rated Gold in the most recent Teaching Excellence Framework, and its world-class reputation is further enhanced by multiple awards and through the success of significant externally funded projects.

The RNCM’s world-leading entrepreneurship education was recently recognised when it was awarded £902,153 from the Office for Students and Research England (UK governmental bodies) to lead a project exploring the most effective ways to train creative industries students in entrepreneurial skills. This two-year ‘StART Entrepreneurship project’ (2020-22) was led by Dr Michelle Phillips (Head of Enterprise (Academic)) at the RNCM, and was in partnership with the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and University of the Arts London. Outcomes of the project include the following: 19,831 hours of student engagement with StART activity, 3,243 students engaged, 233 new industry partners, 798 events, 213 new materials and toolkits, peer-reviewed research publications, invited talks and keynotes, podcasts and conference presentations (full list here), new networks (e.g., Dr Michelle Phillips, Principal Investigator, has been invited to share findings with colleagues in Colorado, Rochester, Brisbane, Helsinki, and Paris). The project prioritised access and inclusion (e.g., the Advisory Board included a member with expertise in equality, diversity and inclusivity, keynote speakers for the bootcamp were diverse in gender and background, and talks were live captioned and signed in British Sign Language, and the StART project included a dedicated research strand examining the accessibility and inclusiveness of all project activity), and was student led in multiple ways.

What would it mean for you to win Outstanding Entrepreneurial University of the Year?

The RNCM has received previous recognition for the strength of its entrepreneurship training, firstly in the £902,153 funding award from the Office for Students and Research England, and secondly in the award of 3^rd place in the international Triple E Awards for ‘Young Entrepreneurial University of the Year’.

The THE awards are extremely prestigious (and the RNCM is proud to hold 4 other THE awards in other categories), and winning this award would be a received as important validation and recognition of the the work that the RNCM undertakes to ensure that students are equipped for their freelance careers. The need for high quality self-employment training has never been so urgent as in the creative industries following the COVID-19: “The cultural and creative sectors were among the hardest hit by the pandemic, with over 10 million jobs lost in 2020 alone” (Reshaping Policies for Creativity, 2022). Graduate outcomes data consistently shows that creative arts graduates are the most likely of all degree disciplines to embark on freelance (self-employed careers), and the RNCM has honed its in-, co- and extra-curricular offering to make sure that they are world leaders in this area of a professional musician’s training.