HKU University of the Arts Utrecht (reviews)

The only reason I studied at the HKU conservatory was my main subject teacher and a few other teachers whom I found supportive and from whom I learned a lot.

However, my overall experience was not pleasant. I think the way the school works is not effective or on the student’s side at all. There are many staff members but for some reason, everything still seems to turn out disorganized. Also, the interaction is usually very unfriendly and there’s zero empathy.
For example, it is a slow process to get your credits after completing a course and in case you need a document from school for some other purpose, like for a student loan application, they might simply refuse to write you one. The student service desk replies to emails with delay (up to two weeks easily) and phone calls with them are unpleasant if you manage to get through.

For an orchestra-oriented string player, the conservatory is not a good choice because they only have a string orchestra and therefore no opportunities for learning symphonic repertoire.

The teaching is very heavily oriented towards music pedagogy instead of artistic development as an instrumentalist. In practice, this means that during the bachelor’s program you have to teach students in years 2 and 3 and also follow a didactics course. In year 4 you are expected to write an educational dissertation.

The curriculum does not focus on developing and deepening your main subject skills enough but instead forces you to follow mandatory side subjects such as choir and piano which consists of having weekly lessons for two years. If you are a violinist, in year 3 you have to attend viola lessons too. I don’t see “trying a bit of everything” as a plus. I believe I would have benefited more if I had had more focus on the actual main subject. Such as longer main subject lessons, sonata workshop with an accompanist, music history for your specific instrument/instrument group, performance coaching, mental training, different chamber music projects, audition training and opportunities for playing in a symphony orchestra. It would be also great if the school would be able to offer orchestral internships or at least gigs so that instrumentalists would also gain professional experience in that field and not just from teaching.

Another huge problem with the school is that even though all mandatory courses are offered in English, the mandatory teaching internship (Bachelor of Music year 2) is with Dutch-speaking children. I don’t see you a student benefits from this kind of teaching experience when they don’t even share the same language with their pupils.

Practice facilities are very limited and the system does not work well.

After graduation, the future does not look very bright for you if you don’t speak Dutch. It is hard to find jobs in the music field in the Netherlands if you are from abroad.

I would not recommend.

The HKU University of the Arts offers a very good music department. As a classical violinist student, I was able to find a warm community, passionate teachers and students of various levels and skills. A very good feature of the conservatory is the freedom it offers you in finding your own pathway. What could improve are the subjects outside the music ones, a very good course that could be offered to be a short introduction in artist management and how to practically achieve our goals. A very big minus of the school is the inexistent permanent student orchestra, a very important subject for a musician. Otherwise, passionate and helpful teachers, and a very good level of the students.