Agenda item

Report of the Vice Principal and Director of Academic Affairs.

The Board received a report of the Vice Principal and Director of Academic Affairs updating on the School’s evolving internationalisation strategy, drawing on outcomes from the session at the Governors’ away day in November 2014 and including a summary of international activity through the autumn term.

The Vice Principal and Director of Academic Affairs advised that this report built upon previous discussions and sought to crystallise the central strategies that would be needed for it to work effectively. It was clear that there was a need to map what exactly was meant by “international experience” and for a delivery framework to be built to facilitate this. This framework would need to detail the opportunities available to students and involve the forging of key partnerships with other institutions, as well as the development of existing relationships. As part of this, the School would need to better gather and use the data available around its international students, and a communications package would be developed for teachers visiting different countries so as to provide a consistent and effective message.

A Member asked what could be done to build on opportunities in North America and generate greater conversion rates in terms of students accepting offers of places. The Director of Music noted that there were several factors to consider, not least that the same students were targeted by Juilliard and Yale who were able to offer substantial scholarships. However, the quality of the teaching at the Guildhall School was still managing to draw students and it was felt that using teachers in one-to-one tuition or Master Classes was by far the most effective method of securing students. However, there was clearly resource implications associated with this and so the School needed to be selective and intelligent about who it sent where, so as to best target prospective students.

The potential for joined-up working with the Lord Mayor’s office so as to access opportunities provided through his international visits was also discussed, with the Principal advising that initial discussions had taken place with Corporation departments including the Lord Mayor’s office, with a view to seeing where synergies existed for the School to “piggy back” on to existing events to maximum effect. The possibility of the Chairman of Policy & Resources mentioning the School to certain key individuals during meetings was also being discussed.

With the resource implications of one-to-one teaching meaning that there was a limit to how widely this could be used, Members asked if there were any alternative delivery methods using modern technology which allowed this effective process to be used more widely. The Director of Music confirmed that ways to use digital media were being explored so as to showcase teachers on the internet and potentially host online one-to-one sessions.

A Member suggested that working with orchestras would be a highly effective way of engaging with the North American market; a number of London-based orchestras were very active in North America and collaborating with them would allow the School to raise its profile significantly in the region.

In response to queries about the potential to hold interviews on the west coast of the US, the Director of Music advised that experience had demonstrated prospective candidates based on the west coast were consistently prepared to travel to New York for the process; indeed, this had an accidental yet beneficial side-effect in that it meant the calibre of such applicants was often higher, as those potentially lacking the requisite skills were discouraged from making hopeful applications by the requisite travel.

RESOLVED: That the report be received and its content noted.