City University London

City University London

In this year's Times Good University Guide the music department at London's City University rates second only to Cambridge for the job prospects of its students. 'The employability record seems to be one of the better ones,' says the department's head Professor Denis Smalley modestly. 'A lot of it has to do with being in central London and making links, connections and opportunities.'

Opportunities are something City offers plenty of - the music department prides itself on the diversity of its modules and of the music it covers. Non-western and world music have been emphasised here since the department was established in 1975. 'It's really due to the changing cultural identity of Britain,' explains Smalley, 'and particularly in a place like London where you have many cultures living alongside each other. The people who started the department realised the relevance of trying to have a global perspective on music.'

Three decades on and world music is as strong as ever. As well as the university's symphony orchestra and chamber choir, music students are often involved in the African Dance and Drumming, Balinese Gamelan, Javanese Gamelan, Latin American, Middle Eastern and South African Jazz groups. 'Everybody's going to do some of the different ensembles at some stage as it's important for their musical health and it gives them a different view of other cultures,' says Smalley.

'They have a module for pretty much every area of the world'

'They have a module for pretty much every area of the world,' says final year BMus student Hannah Norbury. 'I never thought I'd be taking modules on Indonesian music studies and Middle Eastern music. It's a real eye-opener and they were really significant and good fun.'

The 22-year-old's main instrument is piano but, like roughly half of her year group, she decided after the first year that her interest was away from performance. For the other half, however, City is unique in offering private performance tuition with specialist tutors at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, which is based one mile away.

Norbury wanted to do a degree in London - 'where music really is' - and also applied to Royal Holloway and Goldsmiths, but was won over by the choice of modules at City: 'They were offering things that I hadn't found anywhere else and I thought everything sounded really interesting. There was a music business module and a good sound recording module, which incorporated people from the BBC.'

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