20 November 2023: Update from MusicHE on the Oxford Brookes proposed closure
Since the decision was announced last week at Oxford Brookes, the response has left colleagues at Oxford Brookes in no doubt as to the support they enjoy not only within academia but also in the wider worlds of music education and the music industry.
Closure will deprive students in Oxford and the region of the opportunity to study in their local area and raises yet again wider questions about the diversity and accessibility of arts and humanities subjects in the UK education sector, and the vital critical thinking skills and employability that they foster.
The stories and statements posted online from former students have shown that the teaching at Brookes has left a lasting positive impact on the lives of those working in a wide range of sectors, and not only in music. Underpinning that teaching is a culture of research excellence, the loss of which is bad enough in and of itself; but it would also deal a hammer blow for the department’s record of collaboration and wider cultural impact, including amongst policy makers.
We are writing privately to the Vice-Chancellor and the Board of Governors to express our alarm and wider concerns about the proposed closure, as well as to offer our support in enabling the university to rethink its plans.
17 November 2023: MusicHE’s response to the proposed closure of music at Oxford Brookes
On Thursday 16 November, news broke that Oxford Brookes University is closing its music department. MusicHE is heart-broken and devastated at the further destruction of opportunities to study music in the UK, and our immediate thoughts go out to all the staff and students that are dealing with the trauma of the news.
While we recognise the recruitment challenges, we urge Brookes’ governors and the Vice-Chancellor to pause their decision to close the whole department while the latter’s proposals for new and exciting programmes are still underway.
We assume that there is no need for the university leadership to be reminded of the prestige and value of its music department, not only to its own institutional history but also to music studies at home and abroad – a tradition of excellence that is embodied by its current staff, and through them its students, alumni and cultural partners.
That the decision to close the department comes at the exact moment that the university aims to complete a brand new, and long awaited, performance space is a grim irony. It’s an irony that needs further explanation and one with causes that are multiple and complex; but it is significant that the new building, which is more than a performance space, is designed by the OBU leadership to ‘[bring] together STEM and creative industries activity’.[1]
We urge Vice-Chancellor Alistair Fitt, the senior leadership and the Board of Governors to stop, pause for a moment, and to consider the range of exciting ways in which the staff and students in the music department at Brookes can contribute towards a future in which musical creativity of all kinds – some known, some yet to be discovered – blossom in spaces such as those currently being built.
In the meantime, we reiterate our solidarity with all colleagues, students and those connected to the department at Brookes.
Dr Roddy Hawkins, Chair MusicHE
16 November 2023
[1] https://www.brookes.ac.uk/estates-development/headington-hill