I'm a musician... and mostly performing... but I do do (hehe...) some teaching at the local university, both ensemble and individual... sometimes to do with my specialisation of Early Music, and others as a generalist violin/viola teacher. And of course, I have some misgivings about whether or not music as a practice SHOULD belong at a university... but I think the same thing for many things, up to and including the practice (not research...) of medicine.
... but for whatever reason, having a university degree seems to be important for some reason... even if as a musician, no-one cares about the degrees that you might or might not hold... and the only thing that matters is how you play as a musician... both music and on the instrument.
To me, the university is better for research and a TAFE or trade-hall is what you need for the practice of music (and medicine...), just the same as the other trades like carpentry or plumbing.
... but I'm a bit in the minority there, people love having letters after their names.
Anyway, this sort of also irks me in the field of music... as music academic researchers do pretty good historical research and all of that.. those are hard-core researchers. But too many less good performing musicians end up getting into the academic career with frankly quite dubious research topics... up to and including Phd's and postdocs...
... and after reading quite a few of them... well, some of them are "diaries" (I forget the fancy name for that...) of "personal exploration" (NOT A RESEARCH TOPIC)... or a 100k word ramble on some question that would be best answered with a YES or NO.
Anyway... as I've started teaching at the university when I came back to Australia, it has meant that I've had to fit into the system... without a Phd, you get paid less and you don't have any chance of getting any permanence... no problem, I rather not be tied down anyway. But there is also the implied "inferiority" which does gall me more than a bit... but not enough to torture myself into doing a Phd rather than performing!
In fact, I have little respect for a Phd and in many cases, I see it as a badge of lack of musical ability... of course, a generalisation... but not a terrible heuristic!
... but for some reason, this year's batch of new students have started addressing me as "Dr..." in emails... which I get a weird reaction to. My dad was "Dr..."... in Mathematics! I am DEFINITELY NOT a doctor of anything! Just a violinist and musician.... and I LIKE IT LIKE THAT!!!!
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