RCM Awarded Major HEFCE Grant

Thursday 1 December 2016

The Royal College of Music has been awarded a major grant by the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE) to support the development of new online teaching and learning resources.

HEFCE’s award of £44,412 will fund development of its digital platforms for remote teaching, enabling students and professors to share work outside of physical teaching spaces and give and receive feedback in between lessons. As well as enhancing the RCM’s teaching offer to students, the development of web-based materials specifically in the field of one-to-one instrumental and vocal education, will help promote peer-learning and knowledge exchange across the RCM and beyond.

Professor Richard Wistreich, Director of Research at the RCM, said: ‘The Royal College of Music is already a world-leader in the use of digital technologies to prepare students for successful careers as professional musicians. We are currently investing around £500,000 to introduce Learn.RCM, a cutting edge Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) customised to the highly specialised needs of conservatoire education. The award will support innovation in the ways in which students and professors at the RCM learn, teach and share knowledge.

‘The RCM’s HEFCE-funded project will enable staff and students to work together to develop ground-breaking learning techniques in music performance that complement, rather than substitute for, the vital face-to-face lessons that are central the College’s training. These sophisticated yet easy-to-use online tools will enhance the traditional learning models of conservatoire education, provide opportunities for our students and professors to experiment, and lead to important pedagogical innovations in our field.’