Bachelor of Music Therapy

The Bachelor of Music Therapy is a 54-month degree combining musicianship with clinical training, preparing graduates for accredited practice as music therapists in health and community settings.

The music side covers principal instrument and voice, guitar and piano as functional therapy tools, improvisation, theory and musicianship, and repertoire suited to clinical work. The clinical side runs psychology and human development, anatomy and physiology, abnormal psychology, music therapy theory and methods, assessment and treatment planning, documentation and ethics, and populations-specific practice across mental health, developmental disability, dementia care, palliative care and paediatrics. A supervised clinical internship completes the program — which is why it runs 54 months rather than 48.

This is a regulated professional pathway rather than a general music degree. The internship and accreditation structure are aligned to Canadian music therapy certification, so graduates move toward accredited practitioner status. The audition and portfolio requirement reflects that clinical work demands genuine musical fluency, not just interest.

CapU is a fully public teaching university on Vancouver’s North Shore — a Designated Learning Institution (DLI O19280078102) with university status since 2008. Classes are small, faculty teach rather than delegate to assistants, and tuition sits well below the big Vancouver research universities while the credential carries the same public-institution standing.

Its field maps to CIP 51.2305 (Music therapy). As a bachelor’s degree, graduates are exempt from the November 2024 PGWP field-of-study restriction and may qualify for a Post-Graduation Work Permit of up to three years. Full-time on-campus study and graduation remain the conditions, and final decisions rest with IRCC.