ANNUAL UPDATE OF PROGRAMME SPECIFICATIONS 2018/19
1. Update of Programme Specifications for 2018/19
Major changes to programme specifications for 2018/19 should have been submitted for consideration by Curriculum Sub-Committee prior to its meeting in December 2017. This note describes the arrangements for handling minor changes to programme specifications for 2018/19 and any further major changes that might exceptionally come to light during the annual update process.
Deans/Chairs of School Learning and Teaching Committees and AD(T)s should be asked to consider proposed changes to programme specifications for 2018/19. School administrators should make approved changes to programme specifications via the Programme Specification Update and Approval System. Guidance on use of the system has been made available to Schools and is available from the Secretary to CSC (SCSC).
Schools are reminded that although the University's approval procedure serves to monitor and assist in maintaining the quality of Programme Specifications, Schools have the ultimate responsibility for the quality and content of their Programme Specifications and should satisfy themselves of this.
CSC has confirmed that option modules should be listed in Programme Specifications together with their titles, credit weight and semester of delivery, rather than students being referred to departmental option lists or similar.
Offer letters will include links to relevant Programme Specifications. Therefore it is very important that undergraduate specifications include UCAS codes, including those for sandwich variants, and that these are correct.
Programme specifications should use the term ‘accumulate’ when referring to the award of credit, rather than ‘obtain’, ‘achieve’ or similar.
1.1 Major Change Proposals
Major changes are described in section 3, para 1.2.1 of the Academic Quality Procedures Handbook. They include:
· all new or revised programmes and modules that have received strategic approval by Operations Committee and/or Curriculum Sub-Committee
· proposals to change existing programme specifications and module specifications which have implications that warrant institution-wide consideration. For example, changes to:
- progression rules
- degree qualification rules
- changes to the programme or module learning outcomes that will significantly change the nature of the programme or module
- changes to the learning and teaching activities and the assessment activities for a programme that will change the KIS report for that programme by more than 10% or below the minimum expectations set by the University.
Proposals for major changes for 2018/19 that were not considered by the end of 2017 will need to be considered by a School Programme Approval Panel. Please inform the Secretary to Curriculum Sub-Committee of any proposals as soon as possible.
Further details about programme approval panels are available from the Template Shop here (items 3.3 to 3.6). http://www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/ar/templateshop/
1.2 Minor Change Proposals
Proposals/changes not covered by the major change definition are considered minor and are subject to the approval of the School AD(T) on behalf of CSC. Proposals should be made via the Minor Change to Programme Specification Form and will be considered by the AD(T) and if necessary the Chair of CSC.
1.3 Credit Structure of Awards
Schools should check their programme structures to ensure that they align with the credit values of the University’s awards, thereby according with national credit guidelines. Exemptions permitted in 2009 will need to comply with the requirements made at that time.
Further explanation can be found in Annex E and its appendices:
Appendix 1: EWNI generic credit level descriptors
Appendix 2: Credit values of Loughborough University awards
1.4 UG and PG Prospectuses on the Web
The Undergraduate and Postgraduate Prospectuses are available on the website at: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/ and http://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/
These Prospectuses and departmental websites should be kept up to date with programme developments as these are approved. If any changes to Programme Specifications approved during the annual updating process (or at any other time) have implications for the text within the Prospectuses on the web, please contact Amy Statham (Undergraduate Prospectus) or Siobhan Dunne (Postgraduate Prospectus) who will arrange for the relevant text to be revised.
1.5 Implications for Applicants
If any changes to Programme Specifications have implications for applicants, please inform Dave Norton for undergraduate programmes or Wendy Macdonald for postgraduate taught programmes.
1.6 Submission of Proposals
Minor Changes
Overview of process:
- Complete Minor Changes to Programme Specifications for 2018/19 form available here: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/admin/ar/lps/programme_admin/index.htm
- Seek approval of the changes by (1) the Chair of the School’s Learning and Teaching Committee and (2) the Dean if there are resource implications
- Where appropriate consult other departments
- Seek approval of the changes by the AD(T)
Provide ADT with proposal form, tracked/annotated prog spec and any consultation forms
- If approved by the AD(T), upload the following on to the Programme Specification Update and Approval System as a single file or in a zip file into the ‘Annual Update Form’ field:
1. signed proposal form
2. tracked change/hand-annotated version of programme specification
3. any associated paperwork, eg consultation forms
NB: The ‘Additional File’ field should only be used for subsequent proposals if these are necessary.
- You may also wish to add a note to the Author Note field to record what you have done. Add your name and date to the Author Note.
- Make approved changes to the programme specification on the System.
- Select ‘Update’ to place in workflow for publication by the Academic Registry.
- SCSC publishes approved revised specifications on the Web.
Major Changes
- See paragraph 1.1 above for process for seeking approval of major changes.
- Once operational approval for the change has been given by CSC, note this approval, including the date of the CSC meeting, in the programme specification’s Author Note field in the Programme Specification Update and Approval System.
- Make approved changes to the programme specification on the System and select ‘Update’ to place in workflow for publication by the Academic Registry.
- SCSC publishes approved revised specifications on the Web.
Notes
- Please note that the form sets out the requirements to consult in advance with all departments affected by your proposals, requiring a signature from each department consulted ie:
· Academic departments and the Language Centre if there are any implications for their teaching duties or for their own programmes.
· IT Services, University Library and/or Corporate Services if there are any implications for their resources.
· Careers and Employability Centre if there is likely to be any effect upon student employability.
- Where there is distance learning provision on a programme this should be identified in the programme specification as follows:
· Include ‘(Distance Learning)’ at the end of the programme title if the programme is fully distance learning (NB Separate Programme Specifications should be created where a programme is available as either DL or non-DL)
· Identify any fully DL modules listed in Specifications with an asterisk (i.e. AAA100*)
· Identify any partial DL modules listed in Specifications with a superscript cross (i.e AAA101†)
· Include the following decoder at the end:
* by Distance Learning
† partially by Distance Learning (>50%)
- You may wish to include a clause in postgraduate programme specifications extending the Special Assessment Period (SAP) to postgraduates.
2. Coded List of Programme Specifications
A list of programme specifications will be sent to each department/School. Please indicate on this list the status of each programme specification for 2018/19 using one of the codes below and return the list to the SCSC by the given deadline.
Code / Programme Specification Status / Action by Academic RegistryOK / No change made to specification / Prog spec will be published
A / Changes to specification submitted to AD(T) via Programme Specification Update and Approval System as part of annual update submission or to CSC and have been approved / Prog spec will be published
C / Changes to specification submitted to AD(T) via Programme Specification Update and Approval System after annual update submission and have been approved / Prog spec will be published
S / Recruitment to the programme has been suspended for 2018/19. No existing students being taught in 2018/19
Note: Suspension of a programme requires approval by CSC. Contact SCSC if suspension not yet approved for 2018/19 / Prog spec will not be published but will be retrained.
SS / Recruitment to the programme has been suspended for 2018/19. However some students still remaining in 2018/19
Note: Suspension of a programme requires approval by CSC. Contact SCSC if suspension not yet approved for 2018/19 / Prog spec will be published
D / Programme discontinued. No students remaining in 2018/19
Note: Discontinuation of a programme requires approval by CSC. Contact SCSC if approval not yet sought. / Prog spec will be removed
DS / Programme has been discontinued. However, some students still remaining in 2018/19
Note: Discontinuation of a programme requires approval by CSC. Contact SCSC if approval not yet sought. / Prog spec will be published
DP / Version of programme spec for this cohort of students no longer required as no students remaining
(where multiple versions of a programme specification for different years of entry) / Version of prog spec will be removed
3. Publication of Programme Specifications
Programme Specifications will be made available on the Programme Quality & Teaching Partnerships page of the Academic Registry web site, with a link provided from the student homepage.
They will also be published by Schools in Programme Handbooks or a link provided in handbooks to the online version available on the Academic Registry web site.
December 2017
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