The School is committed to maintaining rigorous academic standards, in particular, in alignment with the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ) and Office for Students (OfS) sector-recognised standards. We ensure all students meet high levels of performance, uphold integrity, fairness, and excellence in assessments, and foster a supportive learning environment to produce well-prepared and highly competent graduates.
This Policy has been developed in line with the applicable laws, regulations, regulatory advice, and sector best practices, including the following:
A 'programme' is a discrete body of teaching and learning with programme outcomes within a subject discipline that the School has approved as leading to an award of a qualification in the OfS' sector-recognised standards on the successful attainment of the requisite number of credits and descriptors contained in the sector-recognised standards. It consists of modules, related to the programme discipline, and may have several levels.
The School's programmes ensure students achieve high performance levels, uphold integrity, fairness, and excellence in assessments, fostering a supportive learning environment to produce well-prepared, highly competent graduates.
The qualifications that the School can award for a programme upon the successful attainment of the required number of credits and descriptors in accordance with the OfS’ sector-recognised standards are:
This ensures that our qualifications, including taught master's degrees (e.g. MSc), postgraduate diplomas, postgraduate certificates, bachelor's degrees with honours (e.g. BSc Hons), bachelor's degrees, graduate diplomas, graduate certificates, Diplomas of Higher Education (DipHE), and Certificates of Higher Education (CertHE), meet recognised sector standards.
The Programme Examination Board (PEB) can award one of these awards as an exit award provided that a student otherwise successfully attains the required number of credits and meets the relevant descriptors for that award. Please see Module Results and Award Conferment Regulations.
This policy ensures that students who do not complete their programme can still receive a qualification appropriate to their achieved credits.
The School awards higher education qualifications based on demonstrated achievement of outcomes rather than years of study, as per OfS principles.
Qualifications are awarded through a credit and descriptor-based system, validated by the School's Programme Approval Rules in its New Programme and Module Approval and Modification Regulations.
The School uses the Credit Accumulation and Transfer System (CATS).
This ensures that qualifications are awarded based on achieved outcomes, using a credit and descriptor-based system, in line with the OfS principles and the School's Programme Approval Rules.
To be awarded a qualification for a programme, the required number of credits a student must successfully attain, in accordance with the OfS’ sector-recognised standards, are:
Award
Level
Required number of credits
Taught masters’ degrees e.g. MSc
7
180 (150 at Level 7)
Postgraduate diplomas
120 (90 at Level 7)
Postgraduate certificates
60 (40 at Level 7)
Bachelors’ degrees with honours e.g. BSc Hons
6
360 (90 at Level 6)
Bachelors’ degrees
300 (60 at Level 6)
Graduate diplomas
80 (80 at Level 6)
Graduate certificates
40 (40 at Level 6)
Diplomas of Higher Education (DipHE)
5
240 (90 at Level 5)
Certificates of Higher Education (CertHE)
4
120 (90 at Level 4)
These too are built into the School's Programme Approval Rules.
This ensures that all qualifications meet the recognised sector standards.
The School adheres to the OfS qualification descriptors, SEEC Credit Level Descriptors for Higher Education, and relevant Subject Matter Benchmarks for its programmes and modules.
This ensures that all qualifications meet the baseline achievements required for each level, in line with OfS sector-recognised standards.
The School uses descriptors for setting modules at each level, based on Knowledge and Understanding, Intellectual Skills, Technical/Practical Skills, and Professional/Transferable Skills.
Students must attain the requisite credits, through summative assessments, to complete a given level.
This ensures that outcomes and also generic assessment criteria at Levels 4-7 accurately capture student classifications, based on SEEC Credit Level Descriptors, relevant Subject Matter Benchmarks, and OfS sector-recognised standards.
The School's programmes use core and optional modules to enable students to earn the necessary credits for a qualification. Each module is a distinct unit of learning at a specific level, with defined subject matter, credit volume, learning outcomes, and summative assessments.
This approach ensures a balanced range of core and optional modules across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, as detailed in the programme documentation and specification.
Core modules are compulsory modules that all students on a programme must undertake to fulfil the fundamental requirements of their programme, ensuring they gain essential knowledge and skills. Optional modules, on the other hand, allow students to choose electives based on their interests or career objectives, providing the flexibility to specialise in particular areas and tailor their educational experience to their individual preferences.
The School offers core modules to ensure all students gain essential knowledge, while optional modules provide flexibility to pursue personal interests and specialisations.
These modules are core for the following qualifications:
Module
Final Project Module (60 credits at Level 7)
Final Project Module (30 credits at Level 6)
This ensures that students complete a significant, integrative project as part of their qualification, demonstrating their learning and skills.
The School ensures effective teaching across all undergraduate and postgraduate modules by aligning credits and activities with the module's subject matter.
This approach maximises students' academic experience and success by using tailored teaching systems for different module types:
Summative assessments are based on the subject matter and teaching system of each module, and must be aligned with programme and module outcomes.
This ensures that assessments accurately measure students' achievement of the required outcomes for earning credits, supporting the overall programme qualifications and standards.
Once a module is formally validated by the Academic Board, it can be used for delivering stand-alone credit-bearing short courses.
Students may register for these short courses and later enrol in an award programme, using the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and Experience (RPE) process. However, they do so at their own risk as future availability and module requirements cannot be guaranteed. See the Short Courses (Non-Credit and Credit-Bearing) Regulations and RPL and RPE Regulations for details.
To ensure compliance with OfS sector-recognised standards, the School’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes must meet baseline credit values and descriptors via the following approval rules:
All programmes must satsify these approval rules before they can be marketed and delivered.
The approval process involves four stages:
Stage 1: Strategic Approval Submit a business case to the Academic Board at least 12 months before the proposed start date. If approved, the proposal goes to the Board of Governors for final approval.
Stage 2: Operational Approval Following Stage 1 approval, submit an operational fulfilment document signed by the Director of Operations, showing how the programme meets operational rules. The Academic Board will forward this to the Executive Committee.
Stage 3: Academic Development With Executive Committee approval, prepare documentation for Stage 4, including:
Stage 4: Academic Approval The Academic Board reviews the Stage 4 documents to ensure they meet academic approval rules and decides on the programme.
Documentation in Stages 3 and 4 must align with the OfS sector-recognised standards.
This multi-stage approval process ensures that all programmes meet the required credit values and descriptors, maintaining consistency and quality in line with OfS sector-recognised standards before they are offered to students.
New modules proposed separately from programme approval must adhere to baseline credit values and School descriptors, following the New Programme and Module Approval and Modification Regulations.
This ensures that all modules, whether developed alongside programmes or independently, meet the required standards before they can be approved for marketing and delivery.
Faculty proposing a module as a credit-bearing short course must follow the same approval process as for programme approval, including strategic, operational, and academic stages overseen by the Academic Board. The process is expected to be less extensive than full programme approval.
This ensures that credit-bearing short courses meet the same standards as programmes. Such courses will:
The School uses generic assessment criteria at Levels 4-7, based on SEEC Credit Level Descriptors and relevant Subject Matter Benchmarks, aligned with OfS sector-recognised standards, to classify student outcomes. These must be considered in preparing programme and module approval documents.
This ensures consistency and alignment in assessments across all levels by focusing on:
Module leaders must consult these criteria when drafting and marking summative assessments to uphold overall standards.
The Academic Board, as the senior academic authority, oversees programme approval, module approval, credit-bearing short course approval, and the generic assessment criteria.
This ensures rigorous and consistent evaluation of all academic matters and adherence to regulatory standards, which are reviewed at either ad hoc or regular meetings of the Academic Board.
All approval rules and generic assessment criteria, based on baseline credit values and descriptors, will be automated in the School’s Automated Governance System (AGS).
This automation allows the Academic Board to ensure that all programmes and modules meet the required credit values and descriptors before they are marketed and delivered, in line with the Organisational Structure, Governance, and Declaration of Interests Statement.
The following metrics will be measured and regularly reviewed as performance indicators for the School to ensure the effectiveness of this policy and associated operations.