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Choosing Uni for Music - Manchester or Durham?

Hi! I have offers from all 5 choices to study undergraduate music (offers from Manchester, Durham, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Cardiff).

Unfortunately all but Edinburgh gave me the same offer so Edinburgh will be my insurance but I'm having a really hard time deciding between Manchester and Durham for my firm. Both have a really good reputation and great courses so it's a really difficult decision.

Does anyone have any pros or cons for each uni, but specifically for music?

Thank you!!

Reply 1

The_Lonely_Goatherd

@auburnstar - can you help out? :smile:

Reply 2

auburnstar

Hi, thanks for the tag! :smile:

Congrats on your offers! Naturally, being a music student at Durham I can give you the pros and cons of Durham. I can't speak for Manchester, although I do know that their performance department is strong and that their composition has a more tonal focus.

Pros:
Really close-knit environment, 60 per year. Small class sizes, tutorials can end up being small as a result.
Broad curriculum in the first year, with lots of choice in 2nd and 3rd
Good music tech and/or contemporary music facilities
Always lots of shows etc on, all run by students and auditions
Rewarding degree - challenging w/o being overwhelming
Strong reputation

Cons:
Facilities. They are suitable but they aren't numerous enough and there isn't eg any big performance hall like Birmingham.
I've heard from friends that there are some dislikes about the performance module and how it is run (but don't know more than that)
Composition module has a big contemporary music focus (as in 20th century/atonal stuff). This isn't everybody's cup of tea, but the department doesn't quite seem to realise that :tongue:

(but you can focus on techniques/tonal composition in 2nd year and/or drop composition)

There are other pros and cons, but these are not related to music specifically (I'm talking about eg cost of 1st year accommodation, but that this becomes quite cheap in 2nd year when living out vs Manchester, or things like the cold weather/location)

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 3

loisalexandra2

Thank you so much! This has been so helpful! It was the facilities that were concerning me about Durham as I haven’t visited but saw amazing facilities when I went for my interview at Manchester. I live in the Channel Islands so getting over to the mainland to go and see unis can be really difficult and expensive, so your list has been really helpful, thank you!!

Reply 4

auburnstar

Original post by loisalexandra2

No worries, glad to have helped :smile:

Don't be afraid to ask any specific questions you have about music at Durham since it's my life now and I'll (probably) be able to answer most things :tongue: