East Lothian Courier | News | Curtain drops on one drama as another one begins

Tuesday, 6th January, 2009

Published: Thursday, 22nd May, 2008 08:00

Curtain drops on one drama as another one begins

QUEEN Margaret University (QMU) is to drop the curtain on nearly 40 years of conservatoire teaching in drama and theatre production – though students currently enrolled will still receive accreditation.

Next year’s intake of 12 acting and performance students will be the last to receive conservatoire teaching.

They will graduate in 2011 from the same course but will not have National Council for Drama Teaching (NCDT) accreditation.

The theatre production course, also a conservatoire course with an annual intake of 18 students, will also cease to be accredited by NCDT after July 2008.

QMU has previously announced its inability to sustain the £1 million annual subsidy required to keep the course running. The Scottish Funding Council has consistently refused to fund conservatoire drama.

A spokesperson said: “We believe the planned new curriculum for drama is more appropriate educationally, and will be more sustainable financially. Central to that new curriculum will be the continuation of the teaching of acting and performance.”

Meanwhile, QMU’s new £105 million campus has been shortlisted for another prestigious award in the sustainable design category of the Scottish Design Awards.

It previously received an ‘excellent’ BREEAM rating – regarded as the measure of best practice in environmental design and management.

Comments