This paper outlines a case study in academic rigour, professional relevance, persistence and resilience. It describes a process spanning some 5 years carried out by The Australian Performing Arts Conservatory (APAC). The paper describes the rationale, process and challenges of evolving and developing a Higher Education Bachelor Degree course out of a successful Vocational Education Advanced Diploma of 25 years standing in the performing arts - against a challenging edu-political background. From this process emerged the terms: ‘Academisation’ – enhancing the broad curriculum with deeper academic and research content, and ‘Pracademic’ – individual skills-based units which have been enriched with deeper academic, research-based, and contextualised content. What also emerged during this process was that these terms already existed. Whilst their respective origins and applications are both similar to and different from that of this context, their very existence reinforces the global demand for balance between professional relevance and academic rigour in Higher Education.