Recording studio AIR to fund new diversity scholarship at the University of Surrey

AIR recording studio has announced that it will be funding a £30,000 scholarship each year to the University of Surrey’s Tonmeister course for someone from an underrepresented ethnic group, with a financially disadvantaged background.

The Music and Sound Recording course can be taken as a BSc or an BMus, and the successful applicant will need to be a ‘bright and promising’ student across the joint A Level subjects of maths, physics and music or music technology. 

Building on the existing partnership between the University’s Department of Music and Media and AIR, the scholarship was established in response to the current lack of diversity in the UK’s audio industry. 

Kamila Serkebaeva, director at AIR, said: ‘The excellence of knowledge and technical understanding that the Tonmeister degree provides is unrivalled in the music recording industry. 

‘We hope that this [scholarship] will be the beginning of a wider reform to increase representation in the music industry and that we’ll soon see diverse values, goals, and concerns brought into the dialogue and the quality of our collective work.’

Professor Tony Myatt, head of the Department of Music and Media at Surrey, added: ‘We are absolutely committed to addressing some of the systemic imbalances which exist in higher education communities and some areas of the UK music industry.  

‘We want to support and provide the very best educational opportunities to the next generation of recording engineers and music producers, regardless of their backgrounds or financial position, and with a diversity that fully reflects our society.  

‘We’re delighted to partner with AIR on this UK-first initiative and are excited at the prospect of working with them to support the best young musical and recording talent of the future.’

Scholarship applications are open now for an October 2021 start. More information and the full eligibility criteria can be found here.