Hey! I’ve just finished my first year on the oxf music course. I did so with the help of an iPad and MacBook, but would say that my MacBook took on a lot more of the workload, mainly as the actual course itself is more academic, thus requiring more essays and typed documents that ended up being easier when done on a laptop.
The times where my iPad did help loads was in modules like SCART (compositional techniques) where I could directly write on a stave and notate, or when annotating scores for analysis. However, for annotating readings, I would just do them on my laptop with the cursor, so I would imagine that there would be easy alternatives for both those modules where I used my iPad. Sibelius for compositional techniques, and analysis with laptop trackpad and plain old keyboard.
When performing, I stuck to copies of scores, as that was just what I was used to. However, I have heard good things about apps on iPad that let you scan scores and annotate them easily and page turn too. The faculty library also has loads of scores you can loan.
I would say you could definitely survive the degree, or at least first year without an iPad. However, it definitely makes life easier, so if you do have the resources to, I would say to go for it, as music is quite a tactile subject which could benefit from touchscreens and apple pencils!