ABSTRACT This article explores the status of higher music education in India through in-depth interviews with KM Music Conservatory students. KM Music Conservatory (KM) is a private higher music education institution based in Chennai, India, accredited by Middlesex University, UK. Students enrolled on KM’s diploma programme study Western art music, Hindustani classical music and audio technology, and can also take part in a variety of extracurricular musical activities. This article argues that students situationally curate valuations of higher music education as well as their own musical and educational identities by selectively drawing on a range of narratives that synchronise local and international factors. Two further points are argued: first, whilst we must be wary of the perpetuation of neo-colonial and neo-liberal ideologies through the increasing internationalisation and privatisation of higher music education in India, we must also acknowledge the ways in which more localised motivations and factors shape music education’s significance; and second, that ethnographic research is a valuable tool for developing informed understandings of and approaches to higher music education for both local and international students, teachers and institutions.

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高等教育、印度和民族志：以 KM 音乐学院学生为例

摘要 本文通过对 KM 音乐学院学生的深入采访，探讨了印度高等教育的现状。KM 音乐学院 (KM) 是一所位于印度钦奈的私立高等音乐教育机构，获得英国密德萨斯大学的认可。参加 KM 文凭课程的学生学习西方艺术音乐、印度斯坦古典音乐和音频技术，还可以参加各种课外音乐活动。本文认为，学生通过有选择地利用一系列同步本地和国际因素的叙述，根据情境来策划对高等教育音乐教育的评价以及他们自己的音乐和教育身份。进一步论证了两点：第一，虽然我们必须警惕印度高等教育日益国际化和私有化导致新殖民主义和新自由主义意识形态的长期存在，但我们还必须承认更多本地化动机和因素塑造音乐教育意义的方式；其次，民族志研究是一种宝贵的工具，可以为本地和国际学生、教师和机构发展对高等教育的理解和方法。