The Eurovision University Study Unit and its pedagogic value: A critical evaluation of public and media reaction towards innovation in higher education

Abstract

In 2016 the University of Malta launched a study unit called ‘Interpreting Music Culture: Multimodality and the Eurovision’. The course intended to serve as a first step through which higher education students would move away from looking at the Eurovision Song Contest annually attracting 161 million viewers around the globe as purely entertaining. Instead, the study unit aimed to help students critically analyse these music-related texts at deeper pedagogic levels. After a couple of minutes from the launch of the study unit, a widespread public reaction developed. The media and the general public commented, asked about, ridiculed and criticised the fact that a well-famed formal higher education institution could come up with such an idea. Many asked the pertinent question: What should a well acclaimed serious higher education institution (i.e. University) accept to teach and what not? Adopting a thematic approach this paper intends to answer this main research question through the evaluation of qualitative data based on the comments and reactions towards the launch of the Eurovision study unit, collected from social media and local and international press. As an outcome, the main conclusion of this paper suggests that people in Malta still frequently adopt limited definitions of higher education which do not include the perspective of higher education institutions as sources where mundane popular and authentic texts such as the Eurovision can be used as valuable pedagogic texts. The paper proactively presents four suggestions through which hopefully, gradual change towards a more comprehensive definition of higher education institutions could be initiated.