Fame Acadamies continued.. ‘All of the modules focused on audio engineering and music technology are drawn from a common pool of modules accredited by the Institute of Incorporated Engineers ,' says Chris Wilson, programme leader. ‘So yes, we most certainly don't do“music technology-lite” for musicians. They'll sit in and do the same modules as would be studied by audio engineers, music technologists and sound and light engineers but it's that coming together of students studying lighting, rigging, studio production, audio systems design and ultimately popular music performance and composition – it's that combination of student activities that we think informs what we do.'

Wilson has been with the University of Derby for five years. With an academic background in more traditional music and time spent teaching and doing research for Birmingham Conservatoire, he might seem the polar opposite of Bimm's Dickinson but that's not the case: ‘I've always had an interest in the commercial music sector and that's where most of my own professional activity has taken place and I have a great interest in the technology that surrounds it. It's popular music that really embraces technology, so that's why I've ended up where I am at the moment, I suppose.'

Bimm's pretty clear about the kind of students they aim to produce – self-starters with well-honed abilities and a realistic career plan. ‘That's as diverse as the graduates that come in,' says Dickinson .

‘We see our role in terms of helping students push forward boundaries, innovating new ideas. We try and support the student's own personal voice so we never know and neither do the students for that matter, where they're going to end up. It's a personalised approach, so for every assignment where they'll be asked to reproduce an industry-standard idea or compose popular music in a prescribed way, there's always a free-choice element. We want our graduates to be distinctive and noteworthy and not like others that are already out there.'

Why is it that degrees in popular music are often thought of as dubious? Is there any validity to the suggestion that a qualification in ‘rock and pop' is a ‘MickeyMouse' degree? Says Wilson, ‘All degree courses have a set of identified transferable skills that come out of studying what they're studying that can be applied to other activities and a lot of our graduates have gone on to do different things other than pursue musical careers through choice.

‘In the ‘40s or ‘50s, a number of academic writers started to evaluate the impact of industry on cultural activities. They criticised popular music for a number of reasons but they were focussing more directly on jazz music, which was the popular music of its time. Jazz has made a semi-effortless move into the academic environment and is now seen as more of an art-music, than it is a commercial or an amateur musical experience.'
He continues: ‘Popular music is a viable musical tradition through which to develop the same range of musical skills as you would if you were a classical cellist, violinist, flautist or anything else. But it also brings with it a number of specific skills and techniques, particularly in terms of interfacing and using technology.'

Wilson sees popular music as leading the way in terms of exploring new technology and its impact on cultural activity – ‘in the commercial environment and in many other contexts' –and, with popular music forming an increasingly important part of the secondary and further education curriculum his graduates have a lot to contribute in that environment.

Few people would look down on a degree in jazz (though some might question exactly how graduates will make a living in later life) so why is popular music any different? Surely it's straight-forward snobbery to think less of pop than traditional music forms? ‘Exactly,' Wilson agrees. ‘What is the cultural and industrial and commercial significance of someone like Elvis Presley to the cultural identity of the United States ? It's immeasurable. If you look at the Arctic Monkeys' recent success, they sold 360,000 copies of their debut album in the first week. The music industry itself is a massive industrial concern to the UK . It's profoundly significant. And from the session musicians to performers, songwriters, engineers and promoters there are a lot of high-level professional jobs that need to be fed with qualified graduates in order to push the industry further and to keep it at the level of significance that it has.'

So, unlike Bimm, the course at Derby is characterised by an underlying study of technology, taught in conjunction with composition and performance. But much like Bimm, the goal is to encourage individuality, stimulate creativity and hone ability – all the while keeping an eye on the world these students will be walking out into. ‘One of the first things I always say to applicants who might come and visit us,' says Wilson , ‘is to make sure they've looked at the range of other courses available because everywhere is different.'

One student who highlights this way in which courses in the same subject can differ hugely from institution to institution is Simon Andrews, in the final year of the Derby course. ‘I spent a year at the Academy of Contemporary Music , which was purely performance oriented, and I wanted to meet people in a university environment who weren't just musicians,' he says. ‘I'd heard so many good things about the department here. The facilities are great and the lecturers, especially people like Chris and Steph Marsland, are so kind and so helpful and passionate about music that it's just such an incredible environment to work in.' For Andrews it more than lived up to expectations. ‘I've got everything I wanted out of the course and more,' he enthuses. ‘I feel I've ended up as a well-rounded musician, producer and engineer, with an understanding of not only music but the way in which we perform it, appreciate it and the way we record it.'

Despite the different approaches of Bimm and Derby, the students on the courses are remarkably similar, largely because both capitalise on the positives of a group environment but also because of this drive towards producing pro-active graduates with a balanced view of the industry they're about to become a part of. Still not convinced? Then visit www.myspace.com/simonandrewsmusic to find out more about Andrews' self-recorded, self-produced, self-distributed and (phew) self-marketed solo album Far From Home.