Further particulars of the post
Research Associate in PerformanceScience:
Participatory Music Education
The College
The Royal College of Music is one of the world’s leading conservatoires. The College provides specialised musical education and professional training at the highest international level. There are over 600 full-time and part-time undergraduate and postgraduate students in Senior College throughout the week and 300 students on a Saturday in the Junior Department. Former students of the College hold key roles in music and the arts in all parts of the world - as performers, teachers, composers, conductors, scholars and animateurs.
Staff
The College has over two hundred and fifty members of professorial (teaching) staff, the majority of whom are busy professionals, who include teaching among the various musical activities that they regularly undertake. There is also a team of highly respected researchers, including the Director, Colin Lawson, and the Director of Programmes Research, Amanda Glauert. A team of over one hundred administrative staff supports their work, and the work of the College as a whole.
Location
The College benefits from its particular location in South Kensington - one of the most attractive and interesting parts of Central London. The area is well-served by public transport; South Kensington tube station is within ten minutes walk; several bus routes pass the Royal Albert Hall. KensingtonGardens and the main museums are only a short walk away; Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine is next door; the Royal College of Art and the Royal Albert Hall are just across the road. The area, known originally as Albertopolis, emerged as a location for national institutions in the arts and sciences after the Great Exhibition of 1851 largely because of the enthusiasm of Prince Albert. Relationships with neighbouring institutions are friendly and supportive.
Programmes and Research at the RCM
The Royal College of Music has been awarding its own degrees since its founding in the 1880s. We currently run a four year BMus programme, masters programmes (MMus, MSc, MPerf and MComp) and a doctoral programme. Each of these programmes is designed to give students the highest level of practical training combined with the skills, knowledge and understanding to contextualise their studies and enable them to become leaders in the profession.
The College offers unparalleled resources for learning and teaching in its range of staff expertise, performance opportunities and in its ICT and Library facilities. The RCM’s research collections, including the Museum of Instruments, Portraits and Performance History Collection and Library special collections, add hugely to the institution’s research environment. Many of the academic staff are involved directly in collections-related research.
The College’s Centre for Performance Scienceis internationally renowned for applied research into musical performance; it launched a one-year MSc in September 2011 as an indication of the College’s commitment to finding new ways of linking educational and research perspectives.
In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, the College was commended for its “lively and sustainable research culture”. As a member of the College’s academic team you would be contributing to the further development of that culture in ways that would enhance the educational experience of all RCM students.
The Post
An exciting opportunity has arisen for the appointment of a Research Associate in the RCM’s Centre for Performance Science (CPS). The successful candidate will undertake research and teaching, working in particular on a new project located within a large multi-centre, cross-council (AHRC/RCUK) Connected Communities programme, which is being co-ordinated by the University of Nottingham: Creative Practice as Mutual Recovery: Connecting Communities for Mental Health and Wellbeing.
This large programme will investigate how creative practice in the arts and humanities (in the case of this post, music) could be a powerful tool for bringing together a range of social actors and communities of practice in the field of mental health, encompassing a diversity of people with mental health needs, informal carers and health, social care and education personnel, to establish and connect communities in a mutual or reciprocal fashion to enhance mental health and well-being. This appointment will be on the Making Music for Mental Health work package based at the RCM, and will involve project management and evaluation of music interventions in participatory healthcare and educational settings.The successful candidate will also be expected to contribute to the CPS’s undergraduate and postgraduate teaching.
Availability
The post holder will ideally start on 1 May 2013 but should be available to start no later than 2 September 2013. This is a two year fixed-term post.
Remuneration
Grade 8of the RCM pay scale, points 33 - 38 (£36,799-42,091pa)
Appointments will normally be made at the bottom of the salary range.
Hours of work
Your normal working week in College is 35 hours per week, but variations in these times and days may be implicit in the nature of your appointment. Flexibility will be required as there will be some evening work involved. You are officially entitled to a daily lunch break of one hour.
A job-share will be considered for this post.
Pension
The Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS) is available for all professorial staff. Under the rules of the TPS, professorial employment is automatically pensionable unless a professor elects to opt out of the scheme. Full details of the scheme are available from the Teachers’ Pensions website: A contracting-out certificate is in force in respect of the scheme and arrangements exist for members to make additional voluntary contributions (AVCs).
Paid leave entitlement
Seven weeks holiday per annum pro rata, plus public holidays.
Smoking policy
The College has a no smoking policy in its offices.
Aaron Williamon
Professor of Performance Science
March 2013