Strengthen shared artistic standards to support future-ready music careers: Exchanges of international external examiners within IN.TUNE

In the highly international field of music education, ensuring consistent, high-quality assessment across borders is both a challenge and an opportunity. That’s why the IN.TUNE Alliance is building a system for the exchange of international external examiners — as part of its broader commitment to quality, excellence, and collaboration across Europe.

This year, the first pilot exchanges began, with teachers from IN.TUNE partner institutions taking part in exams outside their home countries. These early steps are being developed under Work Package 7: Quality Assurance, which aims to build a shared understanding of artistic and academic standards across the Alliance.

At the core of IN.TUNE’s external examiner initiative is a simple goal: to support artistic and educational excellence by opening up the examination process to international perspectives. External examiners — teachers and experts in specific fields such as composition, research, jazz voice, and early music — are invited to join exam panels in partner institutions. By doing so, they bring fresh insights, promote objectivity, and strengthen the international dimension of assessment in music and arts education.

The pilot phase began with small-scale exchanges. For example, seven colleagues from IN.TUNE partner universities joined the examination panels during the Master Research Symposium at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague. Teachers from Oslo and Vienna shared some of their impressions and experiences.

“Being an external committee member for these master's research exams is a task that I find very refreshing,” said Live Maria Roggen, jazz vocal teacher and artistic researcher at the Norwegian Academy of Music (NMH). “Assessing students in an international context and meeting new colleagues whose ideas and methods may be different from mine is inspiring and fun. I also feel like I contribute, with thoughts and views based on where I come from and how I am used to teaching, researching and working in the arts.”

Eugene Michelangeli, Head of the Early Music Department at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, added: “It has been a great pleasure to be part of the Master Research Symposium 2025 as an external examiner! Getting such an insight into the research of Early Music students at the Royal Conservatory has been truly inspiring. This few days have also been a great opportunity to meet with students and colleagues, not only in the Early Music field. Thanks to the IN.TUNE alliance for facilitating this cooperation!”

These exchanges are not only about evaluating students; they’re about benchmarking programmes internationally, sharing expertise, and building mutual understanding of artistic standards. In music education — where national contexts often have only a limited number of practitioners in certain instruments or disciplines — bringing in voices from abroad is a powerful way to raise the bar.

IN.TUNE sees this initiative as a tool for quality enhancement, not just assessment. It offers a new way for teachers to learn from each other, refine their pedagogical approaches, and gain insight into how standards are applied in different contexts. And because reciprocity is a key principle, everyone benefits — both examiners and host institutions.

Looking ahead, the external examiner system will also contribute to broader institutional goals, including national accreditation and quality assurance reviews. By creating a shared language around assessment, IN.TUNE aims to become a reference point for excellence in higher music education, aligning internationalisation, quality assurance, and academic standards in a coherent and forward-looking way.