Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

This course is designed for performers, teachers or anyone with a suitable background in the music profession and who requires professional development at postgraduate level in critical reflection. 

It relates to music performance, music pedagogy, music medicine, social anthropology and psychology.

This flexible program, with four short residential courses, is offered on a distance-learning basis to students anywhere in the world. It provides a secure foundation for students research into their own practice as performers, teachers, creators, therapists and community musicians. Practical skills are the focal point of all investigative work.

The programme combines distance learning approaches study through WebCT, internet conferencing, as well as more traditional textbook reading alongside 4 short residentials which permit intensive tutorial work, as well as peer-learning, practical projects and traditional lecturing. Attendance at the residentials is a crucial aspect of the program.

Course outline

This is a master's degree by coursework and dissertation.

The initial program content addresses issues including how music is learned, how it affects those who listen to or participate in it, the role it plays in the human life- cycle, and why music has significance for individuals and societies. Seminars and online assignments draw on the latest research in anthropology, psychology, linguistics and sociology to provide secure conceptual foundations for subsequent study.

The second phase of the program focuses on methods: how to carry out independent research, and an introduction to the range of research tools that have proved effective in accounting for musical phenomena and human responses to them. At this stage, students extend their grasp of reflective practice through carrying out a series of pilot research projects in relation to their own musical engagement that familiarises then with methods from which they can select those appropriate to their Masters work.

The master's phase is the culmination of the MMusPS sequence and involves and independent dissertation on a subject of the candidates choice supervised by one of the staff at UWA.

Throughout the program, in coursework units, students are encouraged to investigate social, psychological, creative, educational, therapeutic, and anthropological music practitioner approaches. At all points of the course, the emphasis is on the students practitioner experiences and needs.

Students must complete units to a total of 72 points, studying full-time (2 years) or part-time (5 years). International students may only study this course full-time.

Admission requirements

Applicants are normally expected to possess a relevant undergraduate degree with honours, with supporting evidence of practitioner experience.

Entry without a pre-existing honours degree may be possible, but only where candidates are able to demonstrate a minimum of three years of relevant professional experience, and be able to fulfil the requirements of an entry test which involves them in the production of two pieces of critical writing - a response to an essay-style question and a review of a specific book.

Domestic students

All UWA coursework programs: English Language Competence

International students

All UWA coursework programs: English Language Competence

Course enquiries

Faculty Student Office
Telephone: (+61 8) 6488 2091
Email: arts.faculty@uwa.edu.au