The impact of higher music education (HME) studies on career trajectories

Abstract

This paper investigates factors affecting students’ career trajectories within Higher Music Education (HME) studies. Research findings from three institutions (USA and Australia) detail perspectives into the evolving employability of music professionals and propose strategies for fostering success in HME by enhancing the professional opportunities for music graduates. Aspirations reported in ePortfolios during internship placements led to students recognising alternate discipline possibilities when working with industry. Co-curricular work (teaching assistantships, service-learning assignments, faculty-mentored research) expanded doctoral students’ thinking about employment and multi-modal thesis work informed career trajectories. These activities developed employment-related problem-solving and resilience strategies with employability conversations and thinking encouraging HME students and academics to acknowledge the non-musical preparation required for engaging in meaningful work across the creative/performing arts industry. How to nurture expanding career pathways of professional musicians by utilising optimal circumstances for success is discussed while also questioning the impact of professional roles for graduates across a changing and dynamic societal landscape.

Background and literature review

Graduate coursework often equips students with specialised skills and expertise while enhancing their research and performance capabilities, potentially expanding their professional networks (Bennett, 2019; Gilbert, 2004; Herbert, 2008; Phillips, 2008; Rowley et al., 2019). While music students often pursue post graduate degrees with the goal of securing continuing positions in tertiary institutions, some academics aim to help students acquire diverse skills and experiences before securing permanent roles in higher education or community music schools (Bennett, 2019; Pike, 2019a). As music careers evolve educators seek experiential learning approaches (Zajonc, 2010). In music education, service-learning projects and internships have emerged as valuable tools, enabling graduate students to connect coursework with real-world applications (Rowley et al., 2021). While these experiences help graduates in the 21^st century develop essential skills for diverse, dynamic, and portfolio-based careers (Pike, 2017, 2018; 2019b), researchers are recognising that graduate work may not prepare young professionals adequately (Bennett, 2009; Koner and Gee, 2024). This preparation requires graduates to acquire diverse skills and experiences before securing permanent roles in higher education institutions, the creative/performing arts industry or community music schools (Bennett, 2019; Pike, 2019b).

How successful are we in preparing our Higher Music Education (HME) graduate students in finding meaningful work at the conclusion of their studies? Employability is a well-known term, explored by Bennett (2016, 2020) and recently updated by Bennett et al. (2023) as “the ability to create and sustain meaningful work across the career lifespan. This is a developmental process which students need to learn before they graduate” (2023: 1141). Meaningful work will look different for each individual over a lifespan and Canham (2021) reminds us that employability as a musician in meaningful work is not always easy. She suggests “shared solutions to sector-wide problems” (2021: 3). Post-COVID sees the music workforce requiring ‘more than just musical and entrepreneurial skills and capacities to get their careers started’ (2021: 4). Canham suggests four key ideas that can help support a graduate through this environment. Three of these are especially relevant to this paper: understand that one is ‘navigating a complex system, characterised by unique challenges that require specific psychological and psychosocial skills”; musicians may require “career counselling or counselling approaches embedded within their education” rather than just music industry training; and a need to “enhance our capacity for change and our ability to cope with it” (2021: 8).

Aims and objectives

This paper uses employability to explore graduate work in three different HME contexts, two in Australia and one in the USA, reporting the different experiences of academics working with students to encourage employability thinking through explicit conversations and thinking.

Methods

Our paper presents the findings of qualitative studies from three academics with considerable teaching and research supervision experiences in HME through three distinct data sets. Qualitative research involves gathering, analysing, and synthesising non-numeric data. The components of the paper that discuss the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in Study 1, and post-doctoral students in the USA in Study 2, report data from larger studies that received institutional ethics approvals. In Study 3, ethics approval was not required and references to students at Western Sydney University came from an ethnographic approach taken by the author. An overview of the three studies, including when they took place, is given with related literature and additional context described within the context of each study.

The Study 1 project presents a case study utilising a qualitative methodology with a narrative inquiry approach, as defined by Creswell (2014), that provides an in-depth examination of a single entity. Unlike quantitative research, case study research typically focuses on a single paradigm either qualitative or quantitative (Stake, 2005). Case study research is a valuable tool in social science for exploring trends and particular situations in depth, rather than relying on broad statistical analyses (Miksza et al., 2021, 2023). In the case study outlined in Study 1, data is drawn from five post graduate students' reflective narrative writings in their ePortfolios during 2023 to better understand the learning outcomes from a specific and individual internship placement within the music industry. Closer to lived experiences than other forms of research, reflective written narratives give agency to the participant in constructing meaning as they recall the experience. Their stories are lived experiences, autoethnographic in character and unfold as self-knowledge, using of themselves a reflective practice and shared construction.

Through narrative inquiry, the content in the ePortfolio reflections was analysed, with instrumental bounded cases selected to develop a deeper understanding of the phenomena than that provided by a single case (Polkinghorne, 1995). Narrative inquiry was used to tease out the important themes in the case study because it enables the human dimension of an experience over time, with respect to the context of the lived experience (Clandinin et al., 2001). Exploring the complex interactions between individual cases validates the use of this methodology for investigating music learning and career development (Barrett, 2014). A human ethics application was approved by The University of Sydney Human Ethics Committee (Project number: 2017/652). Author 1 is working as a Teaching and Learning scholar in Australia for the past 20 years with undergraduates and post graduate students of many nationalities in a music school. Her research for the past 10 years has focussed on graduate career development.

Study 2 reports the qualitative data from a 2023-2024 USA study (institutional approval: IRBAM-24-0051) drawn from written surveys and in-depth interviews with a purposive sample (Patton, 2002) of three early career pianists within three years of graduation who were working at HME institutions or music academies who were not students of the researcher. The purpose was to understand their experiences post-graduation. Interviews from each case were transcribed and coded by the researcher for emerging themes using the constant-comparison method (Creswell and Poth, 2024). The researcher checked with the participants for accuracy and to increase reliability, then compared across cases for common themes (Stake, 2005). Collective case themes were explored with a focus on preparing for career through graduate teaching, research and service. Author 2 is foreign national living and working as a piano pedagogue in the US for three decades. As she works with MM, DMA and PhD students of many nationalities in music performance and pedagogy, one strand of her teaching and research focuses on ways to align the graduate curriculum with skills needed not only to secure employment but to work productively and sustainably across the lifespan.

Study 3 came from recognition, by Author 3 in a supervisory role, that several post-graduates had undertaken projects which built and/or shaped their careers. Adopting an ethnographic approach in which “the centrepiece…is the observer being physically present in the online or offline setting” (Delamont, 2017: 337), but reflecting on this observation rather than drawing in other types of data, as suggested by Delamont, individual post-graduate projects and outcomes were drawn together for discussion and reflection. Author 3 has had 30 years as a post-graduate supervisor within a HME context in Australia.

While each study reviews literature relevant to each, commonalities and differences from the findings are drawn together at the conclusion of this paper.

Summary of key findings

Study 1: Documenting aspirations to encourage career pathways

Background, literature review and findings

Students arrive at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australia, as competent musicians, composers, singers and songwriters and most continue their musical journey without a university led focus on their future careers. This first section of this case study outlines data collected from a professional practice internship unit of study created as work-integrated-learning (WIL) placement, designed to encourage employability thinking with a focus on understanding meaningful work amongst post graduate students. Self-reported aspirations that Master level graduate students have documented in an ePortfolio (known also as a digital/online journal or learning tool) whilst engaged in their WIL experiences during a professional practice internship placement are presented and discussed.

An ePortfolio is an electronic collection of work and achievements that showcases a person’s skills, learning progress, and professional development amongst other things. Using an ePortfolio encourages individuals to reflect on their learning experiences and growth over time (Rowley and Dunbar-Hall, 2017). This involves analysing and evaluating their own work, recognising strengths and areas for improvement. ePortfolios help in setting learning goals and tracking progress towards achieving them. They can include evidence of milestones, achievements, and changes in skills or knowledge and can provide a platform to display various types of work, such as projects, assignments, or creative outputs. For pre-professionals, the ePortfolio highlights students’ competencies and achievements as a tool for self-assessment. For formal evaluations by educators the ePortfolio allows for creative expression in how information is presented and curated. Students can design their ePortfolio to align with their personal or professional brand, making it unique and tailored to their audience (Rowley and Munday, 2018). For pre-professionals, ePortfolios serve as a dynamic resumé that can evolve with their emerging career as they can be used to document co-curricular education, certifications, professional accomplishments and future career goals.

ePortfolio thinking refers to the process of using an ePortfolio as a tool for reflection, learning, and assessment. It involves reflective practice; goal setting; showcasing work; feedback and assessment; personal learning; and professional development. Overall, ePortfolio thinking integrates the use of technology with reflective learning practices to support personal and professional growth (Rowley and Munday, 2018). Students in the internship unit of study were guided through the process of ePortfolio thinking with a template on the PebblePad platform that asks them to curate their experiences inside the following subheadings: summary of learning; learning objectives and outcomes; relating theory, policy and practice; self-reflection; and future learning areas.

Through the creation and individual curation of the ePortfolio, the elective professional practice internship unit of study encouraged graduate students to acknowledge that there are aspects of non-musical preparation required for engaging in future meaningful work across the creative and performing arts industry. Complementing the orientation to ePortfolio thinking was a series of workshops, with explicit conversations about employability thinking. The students explore Bennett’s (2020) six identified career literacies ‘Literacies for Life’ (L4L) (https://developingemployability.edu.au/students/literacies-for-life/) that help students to understand career and study confidence. It is suggested that students use the L4L to enhance confidence and make informed life and career decisions in line with values and goals. According to Bennett (2020), “employability thinking uses a six-step process and the Literacies for Life (L4L) model to engage students in the development of their future lives and work” (2020: 1). Bennett’s (2016) career literacies are considered as a potential cornerstone of accountability for students as they navigate individual development of future self to emerge prepared for meaningful work. Students were introduced to the L4L model by exploring the six, inter-related jigsaw pieces in an explicit conversation once they have a placement. They create a spider graph of their L4L as an at-home task and the workshop unpacks how the literacies are creating cognitive links. Within our workshop model, the completion of the student self-assessment tool, and the ePortfolio, students learn that employability is a continual process with the potential to influence throughout the career lifespan.

The self-reported aspirations documented inside a personal ePortfolio template during their WIL placement have led to opportunities for further research, funding and curriculum renewal in an ongoing journey preparing graduates for future meaningful work inside the Arts (Rowley et al., 2021). In addition, their written reflections provide evidence for developing future partnerships with an expanding industry inside our changing society post the pandemic where the Arts suffered globally, and alternate discipline studies became more relevant.

Student reflections

Documented in personal ePortfolios, students were encouraged to explore the following areas for assessment with no mark but a SR (satisfied requirements) grade. SR is a grading system that indicates a student has met the course requirements and learning outcomes at an acceptable level. It is a pass, but not a graded pass, meaning it is not included in GPA calculations. This type of grading is often used in tertiary education units of study where the focus is on demonstrating competence or mastery of specific skills or knowledge, rather than assigning a numerical or letter grade based on a relative standard and is better suited to the nature of the internship, which is designed to allow students to develop novel skill combinations.

In relation to career identity, one Master of Music (Composition) student wrote:

“I think that my career identity was a weaker literacy because I don’t entirely know what I want to do after I finish university. I can choose to continue how I’m working now which does involve some use of the skills I’ve gained during my time at the Con as a student, but I don’t think that it would be the best way to develop my composition career. I think I’ve realised that if I want to be able to combine teaching and composition in an equally fulfilling way, at the moment, would be now doing a Master of Teaching.”

This and other student reflections identify for HME teachers what they need to provide to improve opportunities for future career pathways through employability thinking.

Another composer studying a Master of Music chose to undertake an internship at a community based not-for-profit classical music radio station in Sydney. He concluded that:

“useful advice from one professional presenter was never ever talking down to the audience and treating them as comfortable friends. This makes as much sense to me as a composer as it did to me as a radio intern. This idea that music can exist for music's own sake is fine, but I only see the value of music if it makes a meaningful (and meaningful does not mean, in any way, that that cannot be inherent in fun or frivolity) relationship to its audience. The establishment of this relationship falls to the composer and performer, but this internship forced me to realise that connecting to the audience (even if that audience IS the performers) should always be the final goal.” Here is evidence understanding of the importance of communication and presentation.

The L4L prompts students to consider the role they will play in developing their abilities within the definitions of a career literacy. During the workshops, teachers promote explicit conversations about who the students are now (the self), with the future self as one to aspire to. Aspiration goals and thinking about how they achieve that aspiration promote a buoyancy of cognition.

This aspect of cognition is heard in another example from a Master of Music (bass player) working as a recording engineer in a studio who recognised career possibilities and marketing oneself for them:

“This internship has provided me experience to find more direction in my career as an independent artist and session musician. I am more confident in my abilities to market myself personally and the projects I work in. I am confident that whatever capacity I find myself working in a studio I now have a greater understanding of what is going on. In conclusion this internship was an incredibly rewarding experience and a great way to (hopefully) end my time studying.”

Future meaningful work for music graduates

Employability and ePortfolio thinking are a strength-based, metacognitive approach to career development and are globally accepted to be delivered within the existing curriculum without the need for additional time, expertise or resources. The approach prompted students to understand why they think the way they think, how to critique and learn the unfamiliar, and how their values, beliefs and assumptions can inform and be informed by their learning, lives and careers (Rowley, 2021). The thinking of the three students quoted above moved from considering other career possibilities, how to present oneself and communicate to others, and how to market one’s skills, suggesting developmental thinking within employability which resonates with Canham’s (2021) key idea of enhancing the capacity and ability to cope with change. Our students engaged in employability thinking through careful scaffolding of WIL protocols, through reflective narratives, curation of experiences and assessment tasks that included a future-oriented dimension, and through pedagogical approaches that developed students’ metacognition. The postgraduate music students reported feeling confident about their future careers and the self-assessment tool helped them to feel encouraged by their strengths in the L4L, whilst remaining curious to investigate less confident areas. By influencing the development and implementation of effective abilities relating to professional self, we pose the question - why is tertiary education slow at embedding employability thinking into curriculum for postgraduates?

Final words from the radio intern indicating recognition of skills beyond music:

“The internship helped me to develop as a creative thinker and problem-solver because of problems encountered solo and as part of a team. I would like to transfer the team skills and the effective allotment of tasks to members of a film scoring team (i.e., recording engineer, orchestrator, conductor).”

Study 2: Preparing for career through graduate teaching, research, and service

Background, literature review and findings

Creating meaningful opportunities for, and mentoring of, graduate students through teaching, research and service projects during graduate school as young faculty members, prepares them for meaningful work in higher education and elsewhere. Calls have been made to increase mentorship of young faculty (Koner and Gee, 2024) but few studies have explored how such programs might work within HME. Further, extant research in HME suggests that new faculty face numerous challenges with Colbeck (2002) reporting that new academics believed their teaching suffered as they had difficulty balancing teaching, research and service expectations during their first years in higher education. In other research, entry-level faculty who taught at primarily undergraduate institutions reported (through a survey) that they felt conflicted about their varied roles and that research productivity came at the expense of teaching and service responsibilities (Sharobeam and Howard, 2002). Reports of music faculty at accredited HMEs in the United States corroborate these findings, with workload proportions of 74% teaching, 14% research and 12% service (Chandler and Russell, 2012). However, Koner and Gee (2024) found that faculty at R1 (top-tier Carnegie classified research institutions) had significantly fewer courses each semester than peers at lower-tier institutions. Regardless, less than half of new music education faculty, regardless of institution type, had not published their dissertation research due to a lack of time for manuscript preparation (Koner and Gee, 2024; Sims and Cassidy, 2016) but, over the course of two decades, productivity of music faculty has increased when measured by quantity (Koner and Gee, 2024). Despite calls for changes in expectations for new faculty and less pressure to produce quantity over quality for tenure (Jørgensen and Yob, 2023; Mantie, 2022), new music education academics struggle to meet the varied facets of work expectations, and women in particular, report feeling imposter syndrome (Sims and Cassidy, 2019).

Study 2 explores themes from in-depth interviews with purposefully sampled graduates (Patton, 2002) from three doctoral music programs in the United States to gain a richer understanding of opportunities and challenges encountered by post-doctoral faculty who were identified as successful early career musicians. The individual cases were coded by the researcher of Study 2, then compared for common themes, and triangulated through interview transcripts, written surveys and member checks (Creswell and Poth, 2024). The themes are discussed below.

A closer look at three “successful” young professionals

The participants were pianists who had extensive pedagogy coursework and identified strongly as educators. They graduated from three different institutions in the United States with terminal degrees and worked in and outside of higher music education institutions in the first three years following graduation. Participant 1 (Sarah ¹ age 32) and Participant 2 (Maria ¹ age 35) completed PhDs in music education and piano pedagogy at state flagship universities (i.e., the top and most research-intensive public universities in each state), while Participant 3 (John ¹ age 33) earned a DMA in piano performance, early music, and pedagogy from a top conservatory of music in the United States. While case studies are not generalisable, the following themes highlight shared experiences of these early career individuals, each living in different locations throughout the country.

Each participant was driven and self-motivated, had ranked among the top of their doctoral classes, and strove to excel professionally. They were accustomed to working hard, completing objectives and goals, and meeting with success throughout their degree programs. All acknowledged coursework that was useful upon graduation, but also the importance of availing themselves of other opportunities and benefits while full-time doctoral students, in residence at their institutions. All recognised the importance of work during and between graduate programs; they understood that the varied music-related work following doctoral studies prepared them better for employment interviews and sought-after institutional careers. Each displayed traits of flexibility, curiosity, lifelong learning, and strong identity with teaching and one other component of their musical work (i.e., research or performance). All reported satisfaction with their work despite struggling with balancing the various aspects of their careers as well as what they called ‘work – life balance’.

Common themes suggested that the skills (deemed by the participants to be necessary for the first few years of post-doc work) were developed through coursework, co- or extra-curricular work, teaching assistantships, research, and faculty mentorship (both formal and informal). Maria said, “My internship was intense but after that, after all of the business and communication skills that I learned, I know I can do anything in my job now.” This confidence in their preparedness plus the content of music pedagogy and performance courses was critical for foundational learning. However, more specialised and individual courses such as supervised teaching internships, special research projects, and ‘teaching in higher ed’ courses allowed students to prepare teaching materials, curricula, and interview documents necessary to successfully prepare for job interviews and manage heavy workloads following graduation. Courses with presentation requirements, seminars, and non-course related professional conference presentations prior to graduation gave participants the tools to research efficiently and hone presentation skills needed in non-piano teaching (i.e., theory and music history), especially when working with non-music-major learners. Sarah noted, “because I had to prepare and present many presentations in the Music in Higher Ed course, I learned how to research and make presentations quickly which I use every day now that I am teaching non-major music appreciation for the first time.” They credited their faculty mentors with stretching them to explore new avenues for research and/or connections between their various musical interests.

Co-curricular work, including teaching assistantships, service-learning assignments, and research conducted under the guidance of faculty mentors, especially when these included regular evaluation and feedback from the mentor, all provided experiences that expanded students’ thinking about what could constitute post-doctoral employment, in addition to developing critical skills. Maria said, “the extra research projects [not in the curriculum] with my mentor teachers and my peers made me super busy on top of my coursework but I learned how to read articles, do research and respond to peer reviewers. … and the same with my dissertation. If I could manage all that data, I can do anything!” These activities also helped to develop problem-solving, employability and resilience strategies for both finding and maintaining rewarding employment in the music profession post-graduation.

However, most challenging for these participants was managing time and the various components of institutional expectations (i.e., teaching, research/performance, service) and finding work–life balance once they gained employment in an institution (Maria in a community music school; Sarah and John in universities). Maria, the participant who had a heavier teaching, supervising, and administrative load struggled to find space to research, write, and present that work, while Sarah and John who worked at universities encountered opaque promotion and tenure guidelines, little quality mentorship from colleagues, and pressure from superiors to be responsive 24/7 to be great challenges and potential barriers to career sustainability. John noted, “No one here is willing to give me a straight answer about how much research and performance are needed to earn tenure and I struggle with work – life balance. My department chair emails at all hours, and I feel like I have to respond, or he’ll think I’m not working. I signed a contract without being clear on how much research I’d be required to do in addition to performing. After a year, I think I’m doing okay now but what if a better opportunity comes along, will this work be enough? Should I have performed more? Should I have written more articles?” While all were gainfully employed and felt fulfilled at the time of the research interviews, each worried that they were not doing enough to be prepared, as John noted, should a better career opportunity arise. All participants recognised the importance of work–life balance, and all felt they had yet to achieve this goal.

While some of these experiences were included in the core doctoral curriculum, many were discovered through specialised coursework, independent studies, special topics classes, participation in professional development provided by professional organisations (i.e., Music Teachers National Association, National Association for Music Education, Frances Clark Center, etc.) or through Teaching/Research Assistant experiences that provided regular evaluation and feedback. Often, these valuable experiences added additional credits and daily work hours to their schedule while they pursued the PhD or DMA.

Implications for doctoral educators

Themes emerging from these interviews highlight the importance of meaningful doctoral experiences, particularly those that may not be included in so-called “core” or more traditional curricula, to prepare musicians seeking careers in HME. Challenges described by the participants resonate with previous research on balance of teaching, research and service, and clarity surrounding pre tenure expectations (Chandler and Russell, 2012; Jørgensen and Yob, 2023; Koner and Gee, 2024; Sims and Cassidy, 2019). Depending on one’s doctoral degree program, teaching assistantships, internships, mentored research, participation in professional organisations, and the like may not be available, or could overload the student. Not participating in these aspects of a doctoral program could potentially put such students at a disadvantage post-graduation especially if there is little mentorship in the pre tenure HME position. Those with faculty mentors who do not think holistically or steer them toward diverse educational opportunities may lack critical soft skill building experiences and make meaningful employability as a musician for graduates less easy, to use Canham’s (2021) term. In summary, these experiences might resonate with current doctoral and post-doc students and could inform faculty practice at this level.

Study 3: The music doctorate topic as career path

Background, literature review and findings

Why do people undertake higher degree music study? It is a long hard road and what if any are the career outcomes? Drawing on my supervisory experience of 30 years in an Australian university, I have noticed a range of outcomes for those who have completed postgraduate music study. This reflection within an ethnographic setting noted that interestingly, some have led to careers directly related to the master’s or doctoral thesis topic itself. Study 3 is ethnographic, drawn from my observation of graduates (with informed consent) that I have supervised, with their career paths commencing, in some cases, during their candidature.

The literature on higher education graduates looks at career paths, employability, career patterns and competencies in science and engineering, and career path analysis of English and Mathematics postgraduates, among other topics. For example, doctoral students at a USA university, studying in the fields of humanities and social sciences, were found to be more likely to pursue faculty careers than those of the fields of science and engineering (Seo et al., 2021). Interviews with 11 history doctoral candidates noted a strong commitment to the topic itself with “a desire to reach the summit of academic achievement” (Seo et al., 2021: 965) most important, with all participants already having had substantial work experience. A career in the discipline wasn’t such a “dominant motive” (Brailsford, 2010: 25) but third parties could be influential in the decision-making process.

Of particular interest to this discussion is Harrison’s (2011) investigation into the motivation of students to enrol in music and music education higher degrees. Interviews with 12 higher degree music participants noted four major themes for undertaking the program – “love of learning, access to resources, connection to the subject matter and altruism” (Harrison, 2011: p. 72). Harrison (2011) notes that while “there are government policies designed to create knowledge-rich nations, the musician has little reason to undertake a research degree to improve employment prospects, except if they are intending to take on an academic career” (2011: 68). It is this comment which the following discussion investigates further, looking at how thesis topics themselves can form/reshape possible career paths and meaningful employability.

My own university, Western Sydney University, offers musicians two doctoral programs – a Doctor of Creative Arts (DCA) with a creative portfolio (compositions, performances, recordings, technology, etc.), and focused exegetical writing; and a PhD in which the research aim focuses the writing with possible creative outcomes supporting the argument. This discussion is not about the DCA style of degree which has a deliberate career aim, whether composer, performer, sound artist, but the PhD in which topics, over the time of the candidature, have led to new career potential. This is determined by the topic of the thesis project and by the inclination of the candidate.

Thesis topics

The most career-directed PhD topic was one in which the candidate documented her learning to become a community choral director, the thesis as conductor training. I had previously supervised a similar topic on conducting for honours with a similar methodology and professional career outcome. The PhD candidate interviewed and observed community choir directors, was mentored by several, documented this plus her own learning and as the thesis progressed began a career as a community choir director.

Two doctoral topics saw experienced performers, soprano and bassoonist, investigate their own practice and performing environment. Both produced a publication for their respective instrument. Performance strategies for singing teachers and singers engaging with Australian art song were drawn from reflective journalling by the candidate and other participating professional singers who performed in two public concerts. Performance analyses for each song, plus a bank of vocal strategies, are to be published soon. The bassoon topic investigated ways of making the bassoon relevant in contemporary classical music Australia. New music was commissioned, a sampler of the works recorded and given to the classical music marketers, and composers, with the players and marketers interviewed. A detailed catalogue of all Australian bassoon repertoire was compiled. After graduation, the catalogue was commercially published. Here both thesis outcomes served as published pedagogical tools/resources.

A new music analysis model with an emphasis on listening, was taken across, on graduation, to different work environments outside of music. A thesis on how Christian-Māori identity finds expression in contemporary Christian songwriting practice within an independent Pentecostal church located in Sydney with a predominantly Māori congregation, adopted a Kaupapa Māori methodology, seeking to validate and legitimise Māori ontological and epistemological realities in research, with songs written by the candidate and performed by him and church members. This led the graduate into intercultural social work. A doctoral thesis investigating the state of suspended experience as experienced by the candidate through drone, repetition, doubling/layering, diffusion, also drew in empirical responses from others and all findings informed two artworks combining images and music. He now teaches design and electronic music at tertiary level. I am noticing that a current candidate, a pianist and study participant, investigating the newly formed piano duo, through practice, rehearsal and performance/video with interviews, journalling, videos and comments from the participating duo pianist, is already finding the process informs her performance preparation.

Meaningful career pathways

The thesis topic focus can be direct or indirect in a career outcome yet inform current or new career pathways. This, plus the literature, suggests categories of higher degree topics.

• The professional, requiring professional association accreditation. For example, medicine, psychology, music therapy, accountancy.

• Career-focused, not requiring professional accreditation by an external body. For example, engineering, science, performing, composition, mathematics.

• Potential career, often a multi-modal thesis. For example, becoming a community choral director, pedagogical publications, new ways of listening beyond music.

• Possible career. For example, humanities, social sciences with academia as one career path; and

• Interest/self-improvement/altruism. For example, a musicology or history higher degree.

These are broad categories within which lie many exceptions. Yet, nestled in amongst is the role of the music topic which can lead to or inform, often deliberately, a career in music and meaningful employability. Many of these examples are multi-modal theses with theoretical writing leading an arts-practice component employing a practice-led methodology and several draw on empirical data from other participants. A multi-modal thesis is, by its very nature, mixed methods research, not the usual qualitative and quantitative, but drawing in artistic research, a case Haseman (2007) has put forward, arguing for mixed methods artistic research. The outcome has been thesis topics which have been ‘useful’ in enhancing, growing or forming a career pathway.

Contributions and implications

The issue of employability, career trajectories, satisfaction and identity among graduate, doctorate and post-doctoral students during these formative years warrants further investigation, especially concerning long-term career sustainability. Depending on the student’s institution, postgraduate or doctoral program and specific music emphasis, the experiences detailed in our key findings may not be encouraged by advisors or fit easily within a curriculum. For Canham (2021) “new approaches to teaching and learning that acknowledge our vulnerability are needed to help musicians, as a workforce, to manoeuvre the sector towards more sustainable and individually rewarding practices” (2021: 4).

The three views in this paper offer new approaches and insights into how career sustainability might be taught and achieved in this challenging career climate. They shape employability through reflective learning with the potential to influence both students and academics through a combination of teaching, learning, employment conversations, thesis topic, and academic observation and reflection. The satisfied requirements approach to assessment engenders a more formal thinking about future work without the pressure of a mark.

Thus, moving forward, we might focus on how teaching, research, and service assignments are implemented into existing coursework. This could include exploring how the three studies show co-curricular activities, such as WIL, ePortfolio thinking, different assessment strategies, graduate and supervisor reflection can add value to the teaching of an emerging protean career for pursuing successful employability. And it is always the individual who decides which opportunities to take. Students provided with the opportunities in our three reported case studies explored meaningful musical work upon graduation, regardless of place of employment. Mentoring to broaden musical perspectives and engaging in relevant post graduate work can lead graduates to successful and fulfilling employment. It is posited that the multi-modal PhD thesis can itself offer career pathways (Blom, 2024).

Pellegrino and colleagues (2018) found that early-career professionals reported higher satisfaction when they had a balance of teaching, research, and service responsibilities, enjoyed research autonomy, and received support from supervisors and multiple mentors. This support can be when postgraduates have the opportunity to co-research with academic staff, offering a heightened sense of collaboration and deeper understanding of research skills (Blom, 2024). As Canham (2021) warns, this early career work isn’t always easy. The Cha and Amrein-Beardsley’s (2024) study found that while the type of institution did not affect stress levels, stressors such as lack of research autonomy, insufficient collegial support, inadequate sleep, and uncertainties about the promotion and tenure process were significant concerns for faculty. Our reported case study findings indicate that early-career music professionals experience the positives and negatives of these factors raised above but are developing problem-solving and resilience strategies for finding and maintaining rewarding employment pathways in the music industry through the reflective activities of the three case studies.

Canham (2021) notes the difference between having a passion for music and self-awareness of one’s “purpose for pursuing music” in order for students ‘to take career decisions that support and sustain their motivation…’ (2021: 166). Therefore, strategies for fostering success in HME to enhance the professional opportunities for music graduates in a dynamic societal landscape should include explicit conversations about employability with faculty. These encourage students to acknowledge that there are aspects of non-musical preparation required for engaging in future meaningful work across the creative and performing arts industry, as noted in Study 1. Co-curricular work, including teaching assistantships, service-learning assignments and research conducted under the guidance of faculty mentors provide experiences that expand the postgraduate and doctoral students’ thinking about what could constitute meaningful work, addressed in Study 2. Finally, the observant supervisor/teacher can build on potential career possibilities during the teaching and supervising process, as in Study 3. Future studies might explore how these experiences contribute to career identity and satisfaction.