South African Music Technology and Innovation Capacity-Building

ongoing

This proposal involves two higher education institutions from the European Union and 4 higher education institutions from South Africa (SA) that will focus on capacity building in the field of digital education (music) between the EU and South Africa. The project will focus on the transfer of skills including but not limited to digitization, music technology (digital audio recording), curriculum development, research, artificial intelligence and cultural exchange. In SA, lack of funding has resulted in many HEIs lagging behind international norms and standards in the area of music technology, digitization and transfer of digital skills. The result has been that HEIs in South Africa lack important skills in music technology to the point that it is affecting education, employment and the music industry. EU HEIs are also in need of revisiting their curricula and teaching practices to embrace processes and methodologies at SA HEIs. In SA HEIs are in desperate need to upgrade their skills, training and equipment in order to remain effective in the current music education environment. Accordingly, the 6 HEIs from the EU and SA HEIs plan on building capacity the field of digital music education, music technology, artificial intelligence, research in digital music and embracing cultural exchange between the EU and SA. In keeping with the Digital Education Action Plan (2021-2027), this project will focus on the following areas: 1. Training of HEI staff in the field of digital music education. 2. Curriculum revision of HEIs to incorporate current aspects of digital music education and practices inherent to the EU and SA. 3. Upgrading of training and professional spaces at the 4 SA HEIs (laboratories and studios) with current hardware and software. 4. Providing HEI staff with professional experience utilising some of the current digital platforms in the EU and SA. 5. Facilitating collaborative research, artistic performances and cultural exchange between EU and SA HEIs.