Diploma Programme Approvals Portal – Terms of Use

This page is in draft.

Introduction

These Terms of Use, together with our general terms and conditions, set out the terms on which you may make use of the Music Performance Diplomas programme approvals portal (‘the portal’), available at https://approval.trinitycollege.co.uk, provided by Trinity College London (“Trinity”, “we” or “our”).

We recommend that you read these Terms of Use, our general terms and conditions and our privacy statement carefully before you start to use the portal. If you do not accept these Terms of Use or the general terms and conditions, please refrain from accessing or using the portal.

We reserve the right to update these Terms of Use at any time. If we do so, we will publish the amended version here.

About the Diploma Programme Approvals Portal

1. The purpose of the portal is to allow candidates to obtain approval for programmes consisting partly or completely of pieces that are not listed in the relevant repertoire list (available at trinitycollege.com/performance-diplomas)
2. Users need to register an account in order to use the portal, which involves providing the candidate name, email address, and country of residence. The user may be the candidate themselves (if over the age of 18) or another adult, such as their teacher or parent.
3. Submissions should be made for the sole purpose of enabling candidates to construct a performance diploma programme for Trinity’s ATCL, LTCL or FTCL performance diplomas.
4. Submissions should not be made for any other purpose, including but not limited to:
   - making a submission to another exam board or educational institution such as a university or conservatoire
   - ascertaining whether an item or complete programme is of a particular difficulty level, for private or commercial use
   Any evidence of a user doing so may result in access to the portal being revoked.
5. Trinity offers the portal as a free service however makes no guarantee that the service will remain free of charge in the future.

Guidance on submission process

6. Submissions should be of complete programmes of the durations as set out in the Music Performance Diplomas syllabus, and not of individual pieces/songs. Candidates should list both the items from the repertoire list together with any unlisted (‘own-choice’) items when creating their programme submission.
7. Unlisted (‘own-choice’) items may include published works, unpublished works and own compositions and should be of similar technical and musical demand to the listed items in the syllabus or repertoire list.
8. Unlisted (‘own-choice’) items may not be pieces or works appearing on a grade, certificate or lower-level diploma list. Candidates should check such lists carefully before making their submission.
9. Candidates may upload attachments with their application; this should be restricted to sheet music for unlisted works, and/or backing tracks for drum kit diplomas.
10. Candidates may include short explanatory notes in the comments field (eg specifying a particular cadenza to be played), but should not use this to ask for advice on their programmes or questions about the exam itself. Trinity’s instrumental specialists will not answer any such questions, and users should consult Trinity local/national representatives as the first point of contact.
11. Only one submission may be made at a time.

How the submission is considered

12. Applications are considered by Trinity’s instrumental specialists. Trinity’s decision on the approval of any programme or work is final.
13. The outcome of the application will be:
    • a programme approval statement, valid for the duration specified
    • a response explaining why the programme has not been approved
    • a request for further information (eg a scan of an unlisted piece or an audio file of a drumless backing track)
14. Trinity endeavours to process applications within 15 working days, however this is not a guarantee and applications may take longer to process during eg holiday periods. There is no facility to ‘fast-track’ approval requests in order to comply with other deadlines such as exam dates or entry closing dates. Candidates should therefore complete the process before making their exam entry.
15. If a candidate does not respond to a request for information within 30 days their submission will automatically be withdrawn.
16. Once candidates have received the outcome of their application, candidates are free to use their programme (if approved) for the exam. Candidates may also revise their programme, in which case they will need to re-apply for approval, if the revised programme contains any unlisted items. Any new programme approval letter issued will not invalidate an existing one that has been issued.
17. Programmes cannot be amended once they have been submitted. If a programme needs to be changed before a response has been issued, the candidate should withdraw it and resubmit a new one.
18. Own-choice (‘unlisted’) items approved in one programme may not necessarily be approved in another.

Fair and appropriate use

19. Trinity retains the right to remove a user’s access to the portal if repeated submissions are made that do not reflect the guidelines in the syllabus. These may include:
    • An excessive number of submissions, with little evidence of intention to enter for a Trinity exam
    • Programmes containing too few / too many items to be realistic for the diploma being taken
    • Programmes containing items with lyrics that are explicit/obscene
    • Repeated submissions of programmes containing obscure items, or those of an inappropriate genre, or those that are unnecessarily simplistic/virtuosic for the level
20. Creating additional user accounts for the same individual in order to submit multiple programmes concurrently is not allowed. Trinity may monitor IP addresses or similar data for user accounts to determine whether this is taking place.
21. Candidates acknowledge that programme approval only takes into account musical and technical demand of the chosen works and that the following are not considered as part of the approval process:
    • duration
    • balance, variety and coherence
    • instrument-specific requirements (including permitted selections, accompaniment and related instruments)
22. Candidates should ensure they are familiar with all requirements and regulations as set out in the Music Performance Diplomas syllabus.

Changes to the Diploma Portal Terms of Use