Memorandum 14
Submission from the Office of the City
Remembrancer
I am writing following the Committee's announcement
at the beginning of this month to conduct an inquiry into the
Government's decision to phase out financial support given to
institutions for equivalent or lower qualifications.
As you may know, the City of London Corporation
manages the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, one of Europe's
leading conservatoires, offering musicians, actors, stage managers
and theatre technicians an environment in which to develop as
artists and professionals. The City Corporation intends to submit
written evidence to the Committee on behalf of the School in the
new year but in the meantime, and whilst the Committee is considering
who to invite to provide oral evidence, it is worthwhile pointing
out that the School believes the Government's proposals will disproportionately
affect music conservatoires and drama schools. If an institution
is faced with the prospect of teaching students at the regulated
fee level but with no teaching grant, it either has to suffer
the considerable financial disadvantage or discriminate against
students by not admitting them. This is a particular issue for
music conservatoires and drama schools where the cost of providing
highly specialised one-to-one tuition is considerable.
A further consequence of the current proposals
which would adversely affect the School and other conservatoires
relates to students from a number of EU countries (notably Italy,
Greece and Spain) whose qualifications can easily be misinterpreted
as having equivalence to UK qualifications when in fact they do
not fall within the formal recognised "Bologna" type
qualifications. This has knock on consequences which the School
would be happy to explain.
I believe that the Committee has scheduled to
hear oral evidence from the Open University and Birkbeck College
early in the new year and whilst I am sure they will share some
concerns with GSMD, I would not expect the particular impact on
conservatoires to be covered. GSMD would therefore be very happy
to appear before the Committee to detail its concerns if that
were considered helpful.
December 2007
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