BA Music (W300)
2026 entry | view 2025 entry
Course summary
Bristol's Music Department is small enough to offer you a personalised degree experience. Our staff include some of the world's leading experts in their fields. Our graduates have gone on to be BBC producers, professional performers and composers, publishers, agents, lawyers, teachers, and even parliamentary private secretaries and university pro-vice-chancellors! A music degree from a highly regarded university is a fantastic entry point to a wide array of careers, and we stay in touch with a large number of former students, often via our ongoing work with music media (especially the BBC), publishers, choirs and orchestras.
We support our students' journey through their music degree with professional masterclasses and composition workshops for those who love performing and composing, while most of our history teaching is done in small group seminars where we share ideas on the latest research. We are exceptionally lucky to have first-rate professional musicians teaching our students who take performance, and students have many opportunities to develop as performers during their time with us, including conducting ensembles from small choirs to whole operas. For enquiries about organ and choral scholarships, please contact the Department directly.
The Department of Music webpages provide further insight into life in one of the UK's most highly regarded Music departments.
Course structure
In your first year, you will take units in music history, composition (acoustic and electro-acoustic), performance and harmony. In your second year, you can begin to pursue your own interests, with a choice of history topics relating to the cutting-edge research being done by department staff, and pathways through composition and studio work, including recording and production. Performers continue with one-to-one professional tuition and work towards an end-of-year recital.
Second-year music students can, if they wish, spend half of the year studying at a university abroad; for more details, please contact the department directly. In your final year, you can take up to two extended topics, which can be either composition, studio work, performance or a dissertation; alongside these, you will select from a free choice of units and will also have the chance to work on a project collaboratively with your fellow students.
Entry requirements
We accept a wide variety of qualifications and welcome applications from students of all backgrounds. Below is a guide to the typical offers for this course.
Find out if you are eligible for a contextual offer
Find out more about BTEC entry requirements
Find out if you are eligible for a contextual offer
More about Access to HE entry requirements
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Selection process
- Regulations and codes of conduct we abide by to create a positive environment for learning and achievement are found in the University admissions policies and procedures.
- If applying with extenuating circumstances please see our policy.
- Full information about our selection processes for Music can be found in the Admissions Statement:
Admissions statement - The admissions statement above relates to 2025 entry. The statement for 2026 entry will be available in summer 2025.