Curriculum Information

Document Version

QAA Benchmarks

Educational Aim

Learning Outcomes

Course Structure

Level 7 Modules

Teaching and Assessment

Learning and Teaching Methods

Employer Engagement

Employer input is embedded structurally through Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) activities and the Capstone Grand Challenge, where industry partners provide provocations, feedback on student outputs, and reflective commentary on professional relevance. 

The CIPD, as the course’s professional and strategic partner, facilitates continuous dialogue with HR leaders through regional networks and policy roundtables, ensuring alignment with emerging professional trends and ethical standards. 

Annual Employer Review Panels will be convened to discuss graduate outcomes and skill alignment with workforce needs, feeding into course enhancement planning. 

Means of Assessment

Assessment across the MSc is explicitly mapped to the seven Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) and designed to ensure alignment with the CIPD Profession Map (2024), QAA Level 7 descriptors, and the USW Assessment for Learning Framework. Each block includes a single summative assessment, supported by structured formative activities, ensuring coherence, depth, and manageable workload. 

Assessment design follows a developmental trajectory that mirrors the course’s pedagogical rhythm (from pedagogy to Heutagogy via Andragogy). The opening module, Strategic People Management, uses a Mini Grand Challenge Portfolio (Analytical Essay + Reflective Commentary + Viva) to establish students’ baseline academic and professional competencies. The viva provides an early diagnostic opportunity for lecturers to understand each student’s analytical style, ethical reasoning, and readiness for postgraduate study, allowing for early intervention and individualised developmental support. 

Subsequent modules increase in complexity and autonomy. Digital HRM Analytics and People Management in Practice incorporate applied, AI-augmented portfolios and student-choice projects that foster experimentation, problem-solving, and professional reflection. Employment Relations assesses negotiation, ethical reasoning, and conflict resolution through a live case-based portfolio. The course culminates in the 60-credit Leading Sustainable Futures in the People Profession (Capstone Project), a Grand Challenge and research project that synthesises all prior learning, demonstrating independence, critical synthesis, and professional impact. 

Formative assessment is integral throughout; draft submissions, peer reviews, mock vivas, and reflective self-audits reinforce learning and feedforward dialogue. Academic integrity is protected through the intergrated viva model, where students defend their submissions and demonstrate ownership of their work and engage in developmental dialogue with lecturers. 

Together, these assessments scaffold progression from guided analysis to autonomous challenge-based inquiry, ensuring students graduate as ethical, reflective, and future-ready people professionals capable of leading through complexity. 

Learning Support

All MSc Human Resource Management students will take part in a structured induction at the start of the academic year. This will introduce students to the programme team, outline expectations at Master’s level, and create an immediate sense of academic belonging. Induction activity will include both university-wide sessions (covering key student services such as library support, academic skills, wellbeing, careers, visa/attendance support for international students, and digital platforms) and programme-specific sessions, where students will meet module leaders, discuss professional standards (including CIPD expectations), and understand how the course is structured across its blocks. 

Because this MSc recruits a diverse postgraduate cohort, recent graduates, experienced practitioners returning to study, and international students entering a new academic culture, induction is not treated as a single “welcome week”. Instead, developmental support is deliberately embedded into the first taught module, Strategic People Management. 

Block 1 functions as an academic and professional induction to Master’s-level study. Across this block, students are introduced to the intellectual demands of postgraduate work (critical analysis, systems thinking, ethical use of evidence and AI), the assessment approach (including viva practice and reflective writing), and the expectations of the people profession.  

Structured workshops, feedback surgeries and short diagnostic activities are used to surface individual strengths and development needs early, so that tutors can direct students to the right forms of support (academic skills, digital skills, language development, wellbeing) before pressure points later in the course. 

In this way, induction is extended and scaffolded rather than front-loaded: students are welcomed, oriented, and supported into becoming confident, self-aware postgraduate learners. 

For Tier 4 students, attendance is monitored via the Jisc system to meet visa and compliance requirements. For all students on the MSc, we go beyond basic “seat counting” by using Blackboard engagement analytics to review meaningful patterns of participation, for example, access to materials, contribution to discussion spaces, submission of formative work, and interaction with feedback. 

Students are introduced to these expectations and tools in Week 1 of Block 1. From the outset, we also make explicit the CIPD professional behaviours that run through the programme (e.g. ethical practice, responsibility, impact). At Master’s level, this means students are treated as developing professionals: they are expected to participate actively, prepare, and engage without needing constant surveillance. Where analytics indicate disengagement, this is approached as an early support conversation, not a disciplinary measure. 

The teaching team maintain an ‘open door’ policy where students are encouraged to attend the staff offices and resolve any queries at any time.   

Module and Course Leaders will also maintain weekly ‘office hours’ throughout the teaching term, in order for students to have a guaranteed time where they know staff will be available to respond to any queries.  

Tutorials play a central role in supporting student development throughout the MSc Human Resource Management and are a key mechanism within its sine-wave pedagogical model. The sine-wave approach deliberately oscillates between theoretical and practical focus (vertical axis) and moves horizontally from pedagogy to andragogy to heutagogy; that is, from structured teaching, through guided collaboration, to self-directed learning. Tutorials are designed to mirror this rhythm, adapting their purpose as students progress through the course. 

In the early modules, tutorials provide high-contact, structured support to help students transition into postgraduate study, particularly benefitting those from diverse academic and professional backgrounds. They focus on clarifying expectations, reinforcing theoretical understanding, and building confidence in postgraduate-level writing and inquiry. As the course advances, tutorials evolve into developmental coaching sessions where students apply conceptual knowledge to live problems, design interventions, and refine their analytical reasoning. 

A distinctive feature of this MSc is the integration of the viva into the tutorial process. Vivas are not simply oral examinations but serve as developmental conversations and diagnostic skills audits. They allow tutors to identify each student’s strengths, learning preferences, and developmental needs in areas such as critical thinking, communication, and ethical judgement. Insights gained from the viva inform ongoing tutorial support, ensuring that each student receives tailored academic and professional guidance. 

By the capstone stage, tutorials take on the form of academic supervision and professional mentoring, helping students manage the complexity of independent research or consultancy work. In this way, tutorials provide a continuous, adaptive thread of support, embodying the sine-wave philosophy of guided independence; structured at first, collaborative in the middle, and self-directed by the end. 

Seminars function as the collaborative counterpart to tutorials within the sine-wave approach. They provide the social and intellectual space for students to test, discuss, and extend their learning in line with the course’s cyclical movement between theory and practice. 

Early in the programme, seminars are tutor-led and concept-focused, enabling students to consolidate foundational theories through discussion, debate, and case-based exploration. This stage aligns with the pedagogical phase of the sine wave, where students engage with structured content and guided questioning. As students move through the andragogical phase, seminars become more dialogic and applied; focusing on shared problem-solving, digital simulations, and ethical dilemmas. 

In the later, heutagogical phase, seminars shift to student-led inquiry. Participants co-design and facilitate discussions, critically analysing contemporary HRM challenges using systems thinking and challenge-based learning frameworks. This progression mirrors the sine-wave’s upward and outward motion: from dependence on tutor direction, to collective inquiry, to self-authored knowledge creation. 

Throughout, seminars serve as the laboratory of postgraduate learning; a space where diverse perspectives are valued, criticality is practiced, and the autonomy expected of HR professionals is rehearsed in a safe, academically rigorous environment. 

Formative assessment on the MSc Human Resource Management is not an optional extra, it is built into the structure of the course as a developmental mechanism. 

Formative assessment refers to feedback-rich activities that allow students to test and refine their thinking, skills, and academic practice before work is formally assessed. It does not carry a mark, but it directly shapes summative performance and professional readiness. 

Across the MSc, formative assessment takes several forms. In the first module, students receive early developmental feedback on their analytical writing, use of evidence, and systems thinking, alongside a short viva-style conversation. This viva functions both as an academic integrity check and as a diagnostic skills audit, helping tutors understand each student’s starting point and support them accordingly. 

As students move through the programme, formative opportunities include draft proposal discussions, ethics rehearsals, mock negotiations, peer review of interventions, and rehearsal presentations to practitioner panels. These activities mirror the professional situations students will face while allowing them to practice in low-risk conditions. 

By the time students reach the final 60-credit capstone, formative assessment becomes project coaching: students present their initial system maps and proposed interventions in response to the Grand Challenge, and receive detailed feedback from academic staff, employers, and CIPD contributors before developing their independent research or consultancy project. 

In this way, feedback is continuous, dialogic, and purposeful. It supports academic skill, professional judgement, reflective practice, and confidence, all of which are essential at Level 7. 

All students on the course will be assigned a Personal Academic Coach, who will be consistent throughout their degree.  A Personal Academic Coach is someone within your course team who supports your overall progress, rather than focusing on individual assignments or modules. All students will have three PAC sessions with their coach in the academic year.  

Research supervision is a cornerstone of the MSc Human Resource Management, providing structured academic and professional guidance as students undertake their capstone projects. Supervision begins during the preparatory stages (phase 2) of the Leading Sustainable Futures in the People Profession module, where students are supported in refining their research aims, methodological approach, and ethical considerations. 

Each student is allocated an academic supervisor whose expertise aligns with their chosen research focus. Supervisors provide tailored support through scheduled one-to-one and small-group tutorials, offering critical feedback on project design, progress, and analysis. Supervision emphasises academic rigour, methodological integrity, and the application of systems thinking and evidence-based practice. 

In keeping with the course’s sine-wave and challenge-based philosophy, supervision gradually transitions from guided mentorship to independent scholarly inquiry. Early meetings are highly structured to build confidence and ensure clarity, while later sessions adopt a coaching style, encouraging autonomy, professional reflection, and ownership of the research process. 

This developmental approach ensures that supervision not only supports successful project completion but also cultivates the confidence and capability required for lifelong learning, evidence-led decision-making, and leadership within the people profession. 

Students will be provided with online resources through the university’s Virtual Learning Environment, Blackboard.  Each module will include a range of guided and online materials to support students in their learning and achievement of the module aims, however it must be noted that these materials are not provided as a replacement for face-to-face engagement rather as a compliment to it. 

Library Services supports MSc Human Resource Management students as developing postgraduate researchers and emerging professionals in the people profession. Students have access to extensive digital and physical resources, including academic journals, industry and labour market reports, professional body publications (e.g. CIPD), datasets, e-books, and specialist research tools. 

From the first module, Library Services is not treated as an optional add-on but as an embedded academic partner. Our subject librarian delivers dedicated sessions on advanced literature searching, evaluating evidence, use of professional and practitioner sources, and referencing conventions at Level 7. This support is continued throughout the course, including targeted input on research design, ethical use of generative AI, and data handling as students move toward their capstone project. 

Students are also provided with structured guidance on how to make effective use of specialist databases, catalogue systems, and inter-library loan services, alongside in-person and online appointments for individual research consultations. This ensures that by the time they undertake independent inquiry in the final 60-credit module, they are confident in sourcing, interrogating, and applying high-quality evidence to real organisational challenges. 

USW Study Skills can help students develop the writing, maths, IT, and other skills you need to succeed at your studies.  

Students will be signposted to the Student Development Service in Induction week, and sessions with the Study Skills team will be encouraged as extra curricula activity from the first block and throughout the course. 

The Advice Zone is the first point of contact for all student enquiries. They offer confidential advice on anything that affects your ability to study, and they work with a range of other services to ensure you receive the overall support you need. 

Students will be signposted to the Advice Zone during induction and in the Course Handbook. 

The?Disability Advice Team?provides information, advice and guidance, and co-ordinates disability-related support for USW students.?This includes students with physical, sensory, mental health or unseen disabilities, specific learning difficulties (eg, dyslexia) and autism. 

Students will be signposted to the Disability advice team on an ad-hoc basis by Personal Academic Coaches whereever necessary, as well as introductions to the whole cohort during induction and via the Course Handbook. 

USW has several teams who can support students with mental health and wellbeing. 

Students will be signposted to the range of services in induction and through their course handbooks.   

In the first instance, students will book a Wellbeing Advice Appointment through the Advice Zone Online, and then the advisor will explore student needs and signpost to further support, as well as referring to a mental health adviser or counsellor if appropriate. 

The?Progression Advice Team?works with students to identify areas of academic concern, advise on options available and suggest a holistic support plan.  

Students will be signposted to the Progression Advice Team via module or course leaders, as well as via their Personal Academic Coach, whenever deemed suitable on an ad-hoc basis. 

USW Careers will be expected to support MSc Human Resource Management students in developing as employable, future-ready people professionals. The service provides guidance on career planning, professional positioning, CVs and profiles for HR/people roles, interview preparation (including panel and competency-based formats), and progression into senior or specialist posts. 

Careers support is introduced early in the programme and remains available throughout, but at Master’s level it is complemented, deliberately, by two additional sources of professional development: 

• Our part-time / in-work cohort. Many students on the MSc are already practising in HR, employee relations, talent, or people analytics roles. They act as an immediate professional network and an authentic sounding board for those progressing or transitioning into the profession. 

• The CIPD. As the recognised professional body for people practice, the CIPD provides role profiles, labour market insight, behavioural standards, branch networks (including CIPD Wales), and employer-linked events. We signpost students to these opportunities and actively encourage engagement as part of their professional identity-building. 

Students are therefore supported not only to “get a job,” but to position themselves as credible, values-led practitioners who can operate at Level 7: able to evidence judgement, ethical awareness, and strategic contribution in the people profession. 

Course Exit Points

Progression Route

Entry Requirements

Admission to the course is typically through the following qualifications:

Inclusive Curriculum Statement

The University of South Wales operates a policy of inclusive learning, teaching and assessment to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to fulfil their educational potential. Course teams will have considered ways of designing out any potentially disadvantageous element of courses during the course design process. However some specific needs may remain, details about how to apply to have your needs assessed can be found at: http://unilife.southwales.ac.uk/pages/3040-disability-and-dyslexia-service/

Addendum for Delivery at a Partner Institution

N/A