Music/Social & Public Policy

Music and social and public policy is an intellectually adventurous combination, bringing together the study of one of humanity's most fundamental forms of expression with a discipline concerned with how societies are governed and how public decisions affect people's lives. Music at degree level explores not just the technical dimensions of sound and composition but the cultural, historical and philosophical questions that music opens up: why does music matter, how has it changed across time and place, and what does it reveal about the societies that produce it? Social and public policy examines how governments design and implement policy, how welfare states function, and how social problems are understood, measured and addressed.

At the University of Glasgow this part-time programme offers both subjects with genuine depth, giving you a range of options in each year across music and other subjects so that you can design a degree pathway that matches your own particular interests and strengths. You will engage with music's technical, cultural, historical and philosophical dimensions alongside substantive study of policy processes, social inequality, welfare and governance. A year abroad gives you the chance to study in a different national context, which can be illuminating for questions about both musical culture and social policy.

The skills developed across this combination are notably broad: analytical rigour, cultural sensitivity, the ability to engage with complex social systems and the capacity to think across disciplinary boundaries. These are valuable in a wide range of professional contexts.

Graduates move into careers in arts administration, cultural policy, music education, public sector management, think-tanks, research organisations, charities, journalism and social work. Many pursue postgraduate study in music, social policy, cultural studies or related fields.