Course overview

Our Folk and Traditional Music degree was the first of its kind in England. The programme focuses on the traditional music and song of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. National and international artists teach as regular and guest tutors on this degree.

Performance and group playing is at the heart of this course, but you will also study the social and cultural context of traditional and folk music, and how music helps to construct identity and culture.

As you progress through the degree you will have increasing freedom to choose modules to tailor your studies, including from our contemporary and popular and classical music degrees. Our partnership with Sage Gateshead is a strong feature of the course, with some of the teaching taking place there, as well as a wealth of performance opportunities.

After Stage 2 you can spend a year studying abroad at one of our partner institutions, making this a four-year degree. Please be aware that this is usually subject to you achieving an average of 60% or more across the first three semesters of the programme.

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Your course during COVID-19
Please rest assured we make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the programmes, services and facilities described. However, it may be necessary to make changes due to significant disruption.

Given the changing nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, the commitments outlined are subject to guidelines that may be in place from time to time.

View our COVID-19 Study page, which gives information about your Newcastle University study experience for the academic year 2021-22.

See our terms and conditions and student complaints information

Quality and ranking

We have a long tradition of excellence in teaching, recognised in many external surveys and assessments, but also by our own students.

Our commitment to teaching quality and an excellent student experience is reflected through our results in national and international student satisfaction surveys.

Teaching excellence

TEF Gold

A ringing endorsement of Newcastle University’s long tradition of excellence in teaching.

Modules and learning

Modules

The information below is intended to provide an example of what you will study.

Most degrees are divided into stages. Each stage lasts for one academic year, and you'll complete modules totalling 120 credits by the end of each stage. 

Our teaching is informed by research. Course content may change periodically to reflect developments in the discipline, the requirements of external bodies and partners, and student feedback.

Featured module

MUS2092: Ensemble 2

Ensemble modules include weekly small group tutor-led workshops.

Optional module availability
Student demand for optional modules may affect availability.

Full details of the modules on offer will be published through the Programme Regulations and Specifications ahead of each academic year. This usually happens in May.

To find out more please see our terms and conditions.

The first year lays the foundation for understanding folk and traditional music in both performance and scholarship. You take regular one-to-one lessons on your main instrument and take part in weekly tutor-led workshops to develop your ensemble playing skills.

You’ll also study a compulsory cross-disciplinary module on writing about music, and developing academic and professional skills.

Modules

Compulsory Modules	Credits
Performance Studies 1	20
Folk Ensemble 1	20
Traditions of These Islands	20

Optional Modules	Credits
Essentials of Music Theory	10
Applications of Music Theory (Sem2)	10
Applications of Music Theory (Sem1)	10
Understanding World Music	20
Understanding Music History	20
Introduction to Popular Music Studies	20
Composing and Analysing Music	10
Creative Projects	20

In addition to regular one-to-one lessons on your main instrument, you can study a broad range of historical, cultural, applied and practical options.

Modules

Compulsory Modules	Credits
Performance Studies 2	20
Folk Music Studies: Resources and Research Materials	20
Folk Ensemble 2	20

Optional Modules	Credits
Themes in Musical Modernism	20
Performing Baroque Opera	20
Contemporary Musical Materials	20
Composing for Voices and Instruments	20
Practising Music Analysis	20
Indian Music in Practice	20
Composition and Arrangement in Folk and Modal Musics	20
Case Studies in Early Music	20
Music and Cultural Theory	20
Ethnomusicology	20
Orchestration	20
Jazz Today: Tomorrow Is The Question	20
Conducting Studies	20
Popular Music and Media	20
Composing with Technologies	20
Additional Performance Studies (Folk and Traditional Music) 2	20
Music Enterprise	20
Teaching Music in Community Contexts	20

You'll complete a major specialist study, which could be: an original composition; a creative project; a performance; or a dissertation/project on an area of interest which you hope to focus on in your life and work after leaving University.

You'll choose the remaining balance of modules from a range of historical, cultural and practical options offered by the world-leading research-active staff at our International Centre for Music Studies (ICMuS).

Modules

Optional Modules	Credits
Themes in Musical Modernism	20
Performing Baroque Opera	20
Contemporary Musical Materials	20
Composing for Voices and Instruments	20
Practising Music Analysis	20
Indian Music in Practice	20
Composition and Arrangement in Folk and Modal Musics	20
Case Studies in Early Music	20
Music and Cultural Theory	20
Ethnomusicology	20
Orchestration	20
Jazz Today: Tomorrow Is The Question	20
Conducting Studies	20
Popular Music and Media	20
Composing with Technologies	20
Music Enterprise	20
Teaching Music in Community Contexts	20
Global Pop	20
Major Specialist Study: Composition	40
Major Specialist Study: Dissertation	40
Major Specialist Study: Performance	40
Major Specialist Study: Project	40
Minor Specialist Study: Composition	20
Minor Specialist Study: Dissertation	20
Minor Specialist Study: Performance	20
Minor Specialist Study: Project	20
Music, Politics and Policy	20
Musics & Nationalisms	20
Richard Wagner and Wagnerism	20
Indian Music in Practice 2	20
Jazz Studies	20
Folk Music, Gender and Identity	20
Folk Ensemble 3	20
Teaching Music in Schools - socio-cultural contexts and approaches to practice	20
Music and Creative Industries Placement	20

Information about these graphs

We base these figures and graphs on the most up-to-date information available to us. They combine data on the planned delivery and assessments of our courses in 2021-22 with data on the modules chosen by our students in 2020-21.

Teaching time is made up of:

• scheduled learning and teaching activities. These are timetabled activities with a member of staff present
• structured guided learning. These are activities developed by staff to support engagement with module learning. Students or groups of students undertake these activities without direct staff participation or supervision

Teaching and assessment

Teaching methods

To bring out the best in you, we use different forms of teaching for the range of approaches to music we cover.

Some modules are based around lectures and seminars, with reading or listening assignments, others are smaller specialised study groups.

Performance modules are often a combination of one-to-one tuition, group workshops and specialist masterclasses.

Assessment methods

You'll be assessed through a combination of:

• 

  Assignments – written or fieldwork

• 

  Examinations – practical or online

• 

  Musical performance

• 

  Portfolio submission

Skills and experience

Practical skills

We maintain a strong partnership with Folkworks based at North East’s major concert venue Sage Gateshead, where you will have access to various concerts and workshop opportunities.

On campus, many of our students take part in weekly performances in the King’s Hall.

Our outstanding rehearsal, performance and studio spaces are available 24/7, allowing your artistic talents to flourish.

Business skills

You're able to develop business skills through:

• placements in arts administration and education
• opportunities to study abroad. We have links with universities and conservatoires in Europe, Canada, North America and Australia

Benefit from tuition by practising musicians with invaluable professional and industry experience.

Opportunities

Work placement

Get career ready with a work placement and leave as a confident professional in your field. You can apply to spend 9 to 12 months working in any organisation in the world, and receive University support from our dedicated team to secure your dream placement. Work placements take place between stages 2 and 3.

You'll gain first-hand experience of working in the sector, putting your learning into practice and developing your professional expertise.

If you choose to take a work placement, it will extend your degree by a year. A work placement is not available if you're spending a year studying abroad. Placements are subject to availability.

Find out more about work placements

Study abroad

Experience life in another country by choosing to study abroad as part of your degree. You’ll be encouraged to embrace fun and challenging experiences, make connections with new communities and graduate as a globally aware professional, ready for your future.

You can choose to spend up to a year studying at a partner institution overseas.

If you choose to study abroad, it will extend your degree by a year. 

Find out more about study abroad

Facilities and environment

Facilities

You'll be based in the School of Arts and Cultures, in the University's main campus.

You'll have access to outstanding specialist music facilities, including state of the art studios, rehearsal spaces, specialist tuition rooms, flexible study spaces, and a music skills suite.

Studios

Our professional recording and music production suites provide a space for:

• full band multi-track recording
• electro-acoustic composition multimedia work
• sound art installations

We have a range of portable recording equipment and tools designed for live electronics and technologically mediated live performance. These are accessible to all music students.

The spaces are accessible 24 hours a day and can be hired for private use.

Rehearsal spaces

You'll have access to a range of rehearsal spaces, including:

• 25 acoustically treated practice rooms
• five instrumental teaching rooms
• a large, acoustically isolated, ensemble/band practice room
• two large performance/rehearsal spaces (each seats up to 50 people)
• the University's King's Hall (seats 400 people)

Opportunities to perform

We offer a free professional concert series every Thursday lunchtime during term time, followed by a student performance where you have the chance to perform for, and listen to, your colleagues from all of our music degrees.

There is also a student-organised annual Summer Music Festival, showcasing our students' talents and giving you the chance to gain real-world experience of event management.

Our music students immerse themselves in Newcastle's thriving music scene which includes everything from high-profile venues like the Sage Gateshead, the O2 Academy and the City Hall, to more intimate local spots such as The Cluny, The Cumberland Arms and Bar Loco. It’s also home to the UK’s first co-operatively owned music venue, The Globe.

Videos of student performance on our website

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Support

You'll have the support of an academic member of staff as a personal tutor throughout your degree to help with academic and personal issues.

Peer mentors will help you in your first year. They are fellow students who can help you settle in and answer any questions you have when starting university.

Your future

Join our network of confident and successful graduates who benefit from our well-established ties with arts institutions in the city, in the wider region and beyond, including the Sage Gateshead.

Many of our students have gone on to develop high-profile careers as performers, scholars, teachers and culture industry professionals.

Preparing you for career success

As well as academic excellence, we cultivate the highest professional and intellectual skills, preparing our graduates to succeed in whichever careers they choose.

Our graduates often become professional musicians, performers, composers, teachers, academics, music therapists, studio managers or sound engineers. Other opportunities include:

• arts administration
• music production
• music journalism
• music librarianship
• music publishing

The wide range of transferable skills music graduates develop means that you can easily move into other professions and graduate training routes. These include teaching, management, marketing, accountancy, law, events management, journalism, healthcare and IT.

Find out more about the careers our graduates choose

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Careers support

We'll help enhance your employability through access to career-related training, both as part of the course and through extra-curricular activities. Modules in music enterprise and teaching music help build skills needed for your future career.

We work with a range of arts, music and creative organisations and businesses including artist management and development, music production, community arts, festival and event management, and music therapy. These provide our students with guest lectures, masterclasses and placement opportunities. Examples include:

• Nordoff Robbins
• PRS for Music
• Generator
• Seven Stories
• Side by Side Arts
• Blank Studios
• Harambee Pasadia

Our award-winning Careers Service is one of the largest and best in the country, and we have strong links with employers. We provide an extensive range of opportunities to all students through our ncl+ initiative.

Visit our Careers Service website

Recognition of professional qualifications outside of the UK

From 1 January 2021 there is an update to the way professional qualifications are recognised by countries outside of the UK.

Read our detailed explanation

Tuition fees and scholarships

Tuition fees for 2021 entry (per year)

Home Fee Students

£9250

International Fee Students

£19200

The maximum fee that we are permitted to charge for home fee-paying students is set by the UK government.

As a general principle, you should expect the tuition fee to increase in each subsequent academic year of your course, subject to government regulations on fee increases and in line with inflation.

Read more about fees and funding

You will be charged tuition fees for each year of your degree programme (unless you are on a shorter exchange programme). 

The tuition fee amount you will pay may increase slightly year on year as a result of inflation.

For courses commencing from September 2021 and beyond, EU, other EEA and Swiss nationals will no longer be eligible for home fees or Student Finance England support.

If you are from the EU you will pay international tuition fees.

Read more about fees and funding

Year abroad and additional costs

For programmes where you can spend a year on a work placement or studying abroad, you will receive a significant fee reduction for that year. 

Some of our degrees involve additional costs which are not covered by your tuition fees.

Find out more about:

• different tuition fees
• additional costs

Scholarships

Find out more about:

• scholarships for UK, EU and international students
• Student Loans and Government financial support for UK and EU students

How to apply

Apply through UCAS

To apply for undergraduate study at Newcastle University, you must use the online application system managed by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). All UK schools and colleges, and a small number of EU and international establishments, are registered with UCAS. You will need:

• the UCAS name and institution codes for Newcastle University (NEWC/N21)
• the UCAS code for the course you want to apply for
• the UCAS 'buzzword' for your school or college

If you are applying independently, or are applying from a school or college which is not registered to manage applications, you will still use the Apply system. You will not need a buzzword.

Apply through UCAS

Apply through an agent

International students often apply to us through an agent. Have a look at our recommended agents and get in touch with them.

Visit our International pages