Music MA: Education
- Creative arts
- Music
- Education and teaching
- Postgraduate
Ignite your potential as a creative, confident and future‑focused music educator with our MA Music: education pathway. This inspiring programme blends cutting‑edge research with real‑world practice, empowering you to elevate your teaching and design transformative musical experiences for diverse learners.
A global pathway to inspired, inclusive music education
Develop the vision and expertise to lead, inspire, and make a meaningful impact in today’s rapidly evolving musical and educational landscapes.
Studying the MA Music: education pathway will prepare you to start or progress your career in music education. Recent graduates have gone on to work in a range of educational settings, both in the UK and abroad. You will develop your teaching skills toward a reflective, research‑informed, and professionally creative practice. Through modules exploring the psychology of music learning, sociocultural perspectives, performance‑pedagogy relationships, communication skills, and practitioner‑led inquiry.
You will also gain the tools to design inspiring musical experiences, evaluate and enhance your own teaching, and engage critically with contemporary issues in global music education. This programme will equip you to become a confident, innovative, and inclusive music educator ready to make a meaningful impact across diverse educational and community contexts.
The seamless integration of theory and practice not only broadened my horizons but also laid a solid foundation for my career development.
Why choose this course
While you study, you’ll benefit from top quality teaching at Kingston University. We’re ranked Gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework, and our highly experienced academic staff are active performers, composers and producers themselves.
The Coombehurst Complex and Visconti Studio
As a music student, you'll access a range of professional studio facilities, labs and practice rooms. At Kingston Hill’s Coombehurst complex there are multiple recording studios, mixing and editing rooms, a 5.1 surround studio, and a Synth Lab for exploring analogue synthesis.
You'll also be able to use our flagship Visconti Studio, an analogue-meets-digital space with a 300m² octagonal live room and a selection of vintage and rare recording equipment.
You can book a range of recording and performing instruments, rooms and equipment through our online system.
Music in the library
The Nightingale Centre’s music library holds an extensive collection of books, anthologies, scores, sheet music, periodicals, and audio and video recordings. Kingston also subscribes to Grove Music Online and the Naxos online recordings catalogue. You can access these resources from any University workstation.
The Art School Experience
As part of Kingston School of Art, students benefit from joining a creative community where we encourage collaborative working and critical practice.
Our workshops and labs are open to all disciplines, enabling students and staff to work together, share ideas and explore multi-disciplinary making.
Course content
You will learn alongside other MA Music pathways in three core modules integrating practical and theoretical learning through project-based, interdisciplinary approaches rooted in arts school pedagogy. You will also develop an understanding and critical awareness of contemporary issues, debates, and practices informed by the discipline.
Your two specialist modules – Performing and Teaching Music and Advanced Studies in Music – will deepen your understanding of music education through critical engagement with pedagogy, research, within sociocultural perspectives. They emphasise the role of the teacher‑as‑researcher, enabling you to connect theory with your own practice and conduct meaningful small‑scale inquiries into music learning. You’ll refine your academic, reflective, and analytical skills while exploring current issues and global contexts in music education. Through practical project work and critical reflection, you’ll build confidence and expertise in designing, delivering, and evaluating engaging musical learning experiences. In addition, you can join any of the variety of University ensembles, or form your own.
Modules
Modules
Optional placement year
Many postgraduate courses at Kingston University allow students to do a 12-month work placement as part of their course. The responsibility for finding the work placement is with the student; we cannot guarantee the work placement, just the opportunity to undertake it. As the work placement is an assessed part of the course, it is covered by a student's Student Route visa.
Find out more about the postgraduate work placement scheme.
Professional Placement
Career opportunities
This pathway will equip you to work effectively in diverse and global professional music contexts, develop attributes for resilience and long-term employability, provide opportunities for creative entrepreneurship, and develop sustainable career models. Our graduates have gone on to teach in various settings both within and beyond educational institutions, in community settings, and continue further studies with a PGCE or PhD. This pathway has also led to progression to management within education.
Teaching and assessment
As a music student, you'll be taught a range of musical styles and encouraged to explore a wide range of genres, taking a hands-on, practical and creative approach to learning and develop your critical skills through engagement with new ideas and methods. Assessment is primarily through presentation, practical and written assignments that will help you hone your analytical skills and your ability to communicate the value of your artistry.
Fees and funding
Additional course costs
Some courses may require additional costs beyond tuition fees. When planning your studies, you’ll want to consider tuition fees, living costs, and any extra costs that might relate to your area of study.
Your tuition fees include costs for teaching, assessment and university facilities. So your access to libraries, shared IT resources and various student support services are all covered. Accommodation and general living expenses are not covered by these fees.
Where applicable, additional expenses for your course may include:
Fees for future course years
Part time
If you start your second year straight after Year 1, you will pay the same fee for both years.
If you take a break before starting your second year, or if you repeat modules from Year 1 in Year 2, the fee for your second year may increase.
Funding support for postgraduate students
If you are a UK student living in England and under 60, you can apply for a loan to study for a postgraduate degree. Find out more through the government's website.
Scholarships and bursaries
Interested in studying a Music MA at Kingston? The following funding support is available:
How to apply
Before you apply
Please read the entry criteria carefully to make sure you meet all requirements before applying.
How to apply online
Use the course selector drop-down at the top of this page to choose your preferred course, start date and mode, then click 'Apply now'. You will be taken to our Online Student Information System (OSIS) where you will complete your application.
If you’re starting a new application, you’ll need to select ‘new user’ and set up a username and password. This will allow you to save and return to your application.
Application deadlines
We encourage you to apply as soon as possible. Applications will close when the course is full.
After you apply
If the admission tutor wants to see your portfolio, we will email asking you to upload your zipped portfolio to the OSIS portal within three weeks. If we need more information or want to invite you for an interview, we will be in touch directly. After that you will then hear whether your application has been successful.
Course changes and regulations
The information on this page reflects the currently intended course structure and module details. To improve your student experience and the quality of your degree, we may review and change the material information of this course. Find out more about course changes
Programme Specifications for the course are published ahead of each academic year.
Regulations governing this course can be found on our website.
What our students and graduates say
Going to classroom observation in schools and music academies gave me a good experience in improving myself to become a music teacher in a UK setting. The lessons I have learned from my professors really helped me prepare a classroom music lesson, and I understand the meaning of student-centred learning.
