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On-line degree courses.


ambient
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Things you can get online that make you sound important.

Degrees.
Doctorates.
Knighthoods.
Chaplaincy.

The chaff is sorted from the wheat based on merit, not whatever piece of paper you have. Some "real" courses are tougher than others - Some universities are known to offer the same degree as more prestigious universities, but with dumbed-down course content - Instead of reading War And Peace, they read Bridget Jones's Diary. Does that mean the person that took the "dumbed down" course is any less capable? Not necessarily. It's all a bit of a distraction. I get what you're saying about the dumbing down of education, but honestly who gives a damn? An education is only as useful as you make it. You can have qualifications coming out of your ears, but that won't make you smart or successful.

Don't worry about it - You'll be happier :)

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[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1479376063' post='3175992']
After all isn't that the point of further education, that you should learn how to think for yourself rather than simply regurgitating what you have been taught.

I was on one of those 9-5, five days a week university courses in the late 70s and the information overload was a significant contributing factor to my failing the year and leaving.
[/quote]

Not entirely BRX, a degree like most other qualifications also serves to inform prospective employers and other bodies of your state of metriculation. We're you able to thrive and demonstrate your capabilities when put under time and academic pressure. I did a 9-5 degree in the early 80s, hardly any continuous assessment and lots of timed final exam summative assessment. I was lucky to get a Desmond. 7 years later I did a higher degree that was modular and got a first. I didn't get any better or cleverer in the intervening years.....

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  • 3 weeks later...

A while ago I helped a friend of a friend with some calculations involved in the Acoustics section of an OU music degree course . The published notes and workbooks were very good quality. I was impressed with the high standard.

Edited by grandad
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[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1479287981' post='3175282']
But just how important is a degree in music when it comes to getting a job playing your instrument?

I work in a different creative industry (graphic design) and on the whole the importance of having a degree when it comes to getting a job in any of the design studios where I have worked has been minimal. [/quote]

I work in software development and we had a little poll around the office a few weeks back and it turned out the most common degree subject was music. There are only two guys with computer science degrees - the two youngest guys - but five people have music degrees.

I'm the only developer there who doesn't have a degree. The one guy who has the same specialisms as me has a bachelors in maths and an engineering masters, and is always grumbling about how long he spent in education to end up doing the same job as me with my 4 GCSEs... :D

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I got a degree from York University, Music and Music Tech. Biggest waste of time in my life. I learned nothing there. I'd done Btec and HND previously where I' d been taught by serious professional musicians and learned incredible amounts and had been in theatre pit bands from being 16. There were occasions at uni where I taught the lecturers stuff and York is a good uni. The difference being I was 'taught' by graduates at uni. It has done me no good, played no part in my life as a musician. I used to ditch uni for a couple of months at a time to go doing theatre show runs. They let me and I still got my degree.

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[quote name='ambient' timestamp='1479260746' post='3175209']
A bit of a ranty post. I'd never heard of this until yesterday. A guitarist that I'm doing some gigs with in December recently graduated with a degree in guitar playing after doing an on-line, two year course. I think he has a BA.

I did a three year course, attending lectures 3 days a week, for up to 8 hours a day. On the days that I wasn't in for lectures, I'd probably spend maybe 10 or 12 hours practicing, and then do other assignments, dissertations, essays etc on top of that.

I don't see how you can do a degree in 2 years, especially when you don't attend lectures. We had live performance assessments every week, you'd get none of that ?

He doesn't even read music. I had to audition for my place, and being able to read extremely well was part of the requirement of passing the audition.

To me this sort of thing is devaluing musical education, and further education in general.
[/quote]

Rant On....it's good to get things off your chest. I agree totally with you but rest assured you have earned your honours the hard way...well done

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