Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

Lectures, tutorials and one-to-one supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate student, doctoral supervision, research training, research support for colleagues including grant writing etc, personal research and performance activities, and associated administration and management.

Each day is slightly different, with a mix of teaching, supervision and administration. I might give a lecture in the morning, attend meetings and then offer one-to-one supervision in the afternoon, followed by a concert in the evening. I also attend and present at conferences, give performances and attend external meetings.

Just about all of it, which gives me a great deal of professional and personal satisfaction.

Working across theory and practice to a high-level, finding time for research and performance activities.

It allows me to engage in and connect my research and teaching interests. I am very committed to training and educating high-level practitioners in music. I can work both independently as well as part of various teams.

I use my formal qualifications (university) my professional ones (performance diplomas and education diploma), as well as the skills one normally associates with academia.

Through professional development and research mechanisms I can access activities and events of relevance to my needs and interests.

After completing my undergraduate honours degree in Australia I was a high school music teacher for almost three years before coming to Sheffield to do my PhD. Just before I finished my PhD I was successfully interviewed for my first academic job. I am now in my third post in higher education, in my second role since joining my current institution.

I have recently been awarded a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

In a research management post in a music higher education institution, and continuing with my performance and research activities.

It's an incredibly competitive field so you need to be aware of the reality of fiscal pressures on the arts, not just completing concerned with your own research.

You need to be an engaging teacher with an awareness of the different ways that students learn. You need to be humble and possibly even have a sense of humour. You must be an effective team player but also capable of self-directed work.

It's crucial to be an organised and timely administrator.