Creating a Ripple Effect. Higher music education institutions as agents for development

Abstract

Many higher education institutions in Norway have been and are still engaged in development projects. This is also the case for the Norwegian Academy of Music. We have participated in several projects through the years in South Africa, Georgia, East Africa, and Lebanon. What reasoning lies behind the institution’s engagement in such projects? We cannot take for granted that everyone will see the relevance of including development activities in the Academy’s portfolio. Even if the projects are mostly funded by external sources, the Academy must nevertheless invest time and energy in the projects. It is therefore important that the reasons for any engagement in such projects are thoroughly deliberated and articulated. In this article, I will discuss the reasoning behind the Norwegian Academy of Music’s engagement in development projects. In my role as Vice Principal (2006–2013), I was actively involved in the decision processes behind several of these projects. Therefore, this article does not aim to give a neutral analysis but rather to give some insight into the kinds of arguments on which we based our decisions. In the following, I will use the project in Lebanon as an example.