Agenda item

Report of the Principal.

The Board received a Report of the Principle concerning the Academic Board’s assurances for 2018/19.

Whilst thanking officers for the Report, Governors were keen that future iterations came with less detail and, instead, when appropriate, summarised the salient issues.

Governors expressed concern about the ratio between males and females when it came to offers to study music at the School. The Principal responded that her team took diversity and representation incredibly seriously – both in the make-up of the student body and, indeed, amongst staff employed across the School and were determined to ensuring that any barriers in the way of greater female representation at the school were removed.

A Governor was particularly concerned that a paragraph in the Report (5.5), namely; “This shows that males overall are more likely to be made an offer than females but when

looked at on a programme by programme, and instrument by instrument level the picture

is not as clear”, did not provide the requisite level of explanation as to what lay behind the reasons for more offers being made to males. 

The Principal added that her team continued to keep the issue of grade inflation top of mind. It was important to recognise that the government model employed was geared more to fit bigger institutions, many of which gave less emphasis to the bespoke training that GSMD offered. An internal review was underway, and an update would be provided to Governors in 2020.

RESOLVED – that the Board noted the Report.