Curriculum Information

Methods Of Quality Standards

Course Management

The Course Leader works with the course team to develop a course to its full potential so that it provides a professional, employment-focused learning experience for students. The Course Leader oversees academic standards, quality assurance and enhancement.

Transitional Arrangements for Current Students

The postgraduate courses in Professional Learning are organised so that full time students, Y1 part time students and Y2 part time students are taught together. The timetable is also configured so that students can choose to take an optional module from the curriculum of another specialist course, where this is supporting their individual professional needs, and is within the framework of requirements for their own specialist award. As noted above, this practice is not just about efficiency. Students benefit not only from a curriculum that emphasises the importance of an interdisciplinary, inter-professional approach, but also from being in a classroom where discussions and networking with a variety of professionals encourages and exemplifies that same approach.

Because of this practice, transition arrangements are important because we will be teaching students on the currently validated course alongside those on the proposed validated courses. Consultation will be undertaken with all our current students and signatures obtained where they are happy to transfer to the new Courses. This will ensure that all students have access to the full offer of modules and will also give all Y3 part time students the option of either undertaking the 60 credit dissertation or enrolling on an additional 30 credit optional module and undertaking the 30 credit dissertation.

Where a student has requested a Suspension of Studies, we will seek to ensure that they are able to continue with the modules they originally planned to take (or the new ones that have replaced them), where this is possible and where we have the staff resource to support this.

Arrangements for Feedback to Students

The arrangements for providing feedback to students on their assessed work within 20 working days are:

Work for all taught modules is submitted electronically through Blackboard. Graded work is returned in the same way, along with feedback comments from the module leader.

Feedback on dissertations is returned to students along with one of the softbound copies that they submit for marking.

Student Representation

Students on this course will be represented at meeting with teaching staff and other members of the University by Course Representative and Student Voice Representatives.

The role of the Course Representatives is to elicit the views and issues of the students they represent, and reflect these views/issues at Student/Staff Course Liaison Groups (SSCLGs) and feedback to the students the outcomes/actions from the SSCLGs.

Student Voice Representatives are responsible for representing their group of Course Representatives at Course Boards and Faculty Quality Assurance Committee and Faculty Learning and Teaching Enhancement Committees.

Quality Of Standards Indicators

Course Monitoring

The University is responsible for both the standards of its awards and for the quality of its students’ learning experience. In order to ensure that standards are maintained and there is continuous enhancement a process of regular review, known as annual monitoring take places. This purpose of the process is to evaluate and improve course quality, ensure the best possible student experience within the resource available and to identify and disseminate good practice. It also ensures that appropriate action is taken to remedy any identified shortcomings and enhance provision.

External Examiner

External examining provides one of the principal means for maintaining UK academic standards within autonomous higher education providers. The majority are drawn from other higher education institutions in the UK. In some cases there will be external examiners drawn from industry or practice.

They provide carefully considered advice on the academic standards of the courses and/or modules to which they have been assigned, and can offer advice on good practice and opportunities to enhance the quality of those courses/modules. They are also able to offer an informed view of how standards compare with the same or similar awards at other higher education providers (primarily in the UK, and sometimes overseas as well) of which they have experience.

External examiners provide of annual written reports to the University based on what he/she has observed of the University’s assessment processes and student assessed work.

The external examiner(s) associated with this course are recorded in the Course Handbook.

Engagement with Subject Benchmark Statements, QAA Quality Code, CQFW and FHEQ

QAA Subject Benchmark statements are not available for Postgraduate study in the field of education. There is however a Subject Benchmark Statement for Education Studies, and this has usefully provided clarity in terms of the starting point for M level studies:

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/SBS-education-studies-15.pdf

The QAA Quality Code has informed our understanding of good practice within QA process and practice embedded in the postgraduate programmes currently being validated:

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/assuring-standards-and-quality/the-quality-code

The Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales (CQFW) and the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland (FHEQ) have informed the development of learning outcomes and assessment criteria. We have taken CQFW L7 descriptors and the FHEQ descriptors for a higher education qualification at level 7 as the starting point for the construction of these:

http://qualificationswales.org/media/1860/qualification-and-component-levels-eng-21-june.pdf

http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/Framework-Higher-Education-Qualifications-08.pdf