Programme Leader Handbook
2017-18
Programme Leadership
ContentsIntroduction ... 3
Generic Terms of Reference for Programme Leaders ... 4
Requirements for Effective Programme Leadership and Management ... 4
Academic Leadership ... 6
Leadership Roles ... 6
Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy ... 8
General Management ... 9
Programme Handbook ... 9
Essential Information for Students ... 10
First Week. ... 12
Assessment Scheduling ... 13
Student Support & Guidance ... 13
Tutorial support ... 14
Study Guidance ... 14
Programme Committee ... 15
Staffing & Resource Issues ... 17
Student Records System - Bannerweb ... 18
Admissions ... 18
Quality Assurance and Enhancement ... 19
Regulatory Framework ... 19
Quality Assurance Procedures ... 19
Course Evaluation ... 19
Subject Assessment Panels (SAPs) and Progression and Award Boards (PABs) ... 20
External Examiners ... 20
Annual Programme Monitoring ... 21
Programme (Periodic) Review... 22
Student Surveys ... 23
Action/Development Plans ... 24
Resources... 26
Roles and Responsibilities of Programme Leaders – a checklist of tasks ... 27
Appendix 1: Programme Management Checklist ... 35
Appendix 2: Programme Committee Agenda Template... 36
Appendix 3: Example Programme Committee Minutes Template ... 37
Appendix 4: Reflection on Leadership ... 38
Appendix 5: Selected Support Staff Roles ... 40
Appendix 6: Sources of Support for Enhancement... 40
Introduction
Programme Leaders play a vital role in the University and are key players in designing and delivering high quality programmes for its students. Programmes weave together the huge range of expertise and knowledge held within this University’s community of scholars. They create coherent pathways of learning which will lead students to a deeper understanding of the world and towards interesting and rewarding careers. In order to achieve these
outcomes, programme leaders need to become motivational leaders for their students, inspirational managers of their teaching staff and effective administrators of the quality processes which ensure the integrity of the system. There is no doubt that the role requires you to handle a high degree of complexity and challenge. As you are responsible for the academic leadership and development of your programme, delivered anywhere in the world, at all levels, the aim of this handbook is to provide you with the key information you need to fulfil your various roles. There is a danger, in a modular system, of devolving the entire academic responsibility to Course Leaders - students enrol on a programme of study and they expect that programme to be coherent and more than the sum of its constituent courses. The role of the programme leader is crucial in achieving this. Developing and maintaining the academic coherence and quality of the course are your goals, that you achieve with help from all members of your programme team.
In this guide, the term Programme Leader refers to the individual responsible for a programme or group/suite of programmes, including intermediate qualification levels. In carrying out your duties, you will liaise with a wide variety of University staff. These will include your Head of Department, Course Leaders, Faculty Director of Learning and Teaching, Director of Student Experience and Faculty Operating Officer. You will also work with professional services staff, and staff from the Learning Quality, and Educational Development Units. Programme leaders have high level knowledge of their discipline and employment opportunities, and are well placed to work employers and employer groups, and Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Bodies (PSRBs)..
The handbook is augmented by the Programme Leaders’ Hub
(http://tinyurl.com/programmeleader). This contains links to useful documents, such as academic regulations, university policies and strategies, and videos that provide information and advice. You can either use the hub’s communication channels for asking questions, requesting advice, exchanging ideas and sharing practice, or the university mailing list: [email protected].
Being a Programme Leader may seem daunting, and will involve hard work, however there are some benefits. Not only will you gain pleasure from seeing your students graduate equipped with high level knowledge and attributes, you will develop valuable new
leadership skills. These can be recognised through HEA Senior Fellowship, and other routes to promotion. It is an exciting and responsible role, which we hope you will enjoy.
This handbook is under continual development, so if you spot omissions, or things needing revision, please email Simon Walker in the EDU ([email protected]).
Generic Terms of Reference for Programme Leaders
The terms of reference given here are generic as such they all not necessarily the
responsibility of you, as programme leader, as some may be delegated to others. They are given here simply to provide you with a complete overview of programme leadership and management responsibilities. The list is deliberately exhaustive to cover all of those aspects of leadership and quality assurance and enhancement crucial to effective programme management. Your Head of Department will determine your full and specific responsibilities and those performed by others. Sections 3, 4 and 5 of this guide emphasise your principal activities in these areas. As the programme leader, you may have executive authority to make day-to-day decisions on the running of the programme of study without reference to senior colleagues but the Head of Department will determine this.
Requirements for Effective Programme Leadership and Management
Recruitment, Selection & Transition
• The review, from time to time, of the admissions criteria for the programme and proposals for any changes.
• The provision of advice and support for student RPL claims.
• Marketing the programme so as to optimise applications. This may include providing web information, prospectus entries, leaflets and all forms of publicity. • A review of on-entry needs analysis of students; particularly in respect to language,
literacy and numeracy.
• Ensuring the allocation of personal tutors for students.
• In alignment with Faculty plans for first week activities, support transition of new students at all levels, and continuing students, through programme and personal tutorial meetings and other activities.
Assessment & Progression
• Liaison with Course Leaders to ensure the assurance that assessment criteria for each course are provided for students, teaching staff, external examiners and external accrediting agencies (if appropriate).
• Liaison with the Faculty Academic Quality Unit Manager / Officer with regard to the schedule of visits by External Examiners.
• A determination of any necessary arrangements with course leaders and personal tutors for students in the failed or referred/deferred categories.
• The assurance that the programme is conducted in accordance with the appropriate regulations and administrative requirements. The latest regulations and procedures can be found on the Academic Quality Unit’s webpage
http://www.gre.ac.uk/offices/aqu
• The receipt and evaluation of all information relating to students’ performance at the end of each term/year.
• The evaluation of student retention, progression, attainment and transition to employment; for whole programme and by age, gender and ethnicity. • The receipt of any advice and recommendations from external examiners, and
separately, external advisers. Quality Management
• The assurance that the programme meets its specified aims and objectives. • Keeping an overview of the consistency between the aims, objectives and learning
outcomes of the programme and those of the courses, with the course leaders. • The assurance of the academic relevance of the programme of study, and proposals
for changes if necessary.
• The assurance that the Programme Handbook is prepared in good time each year. • The management of the elections of student representatives and scheduling of
Programme Committee and other relevant meetings.
• The preparation of the agenda and chairing the Programme Committee, including any ‘extraordinary meetings’ deemed necessary.
• The preparation of the agenda and chairing the Programme Team (operational and development) meetings.
• The assurance that the programme of study conforms to all quality measures as agreed by the University of Greenwich Academic Council.
• Implementing requirements from Academic Council concerning updates on policy, regulations and processes that will affect the running of the programme.
• Production of an annual programme monitoring report in accordance with the University’s Quality Assurance Handbook. The preparation of documentation for review and periodic review of any time-limited programme/award in line with standard procedures for quality assurance and enhancement.
• Submission of reports and/or proposals as required to the Faculty Academic Quality and Standards Committee (FAQSC) and Academic Quality and Standards Committee (AQSC)
• Liaison with the Head of Department, the Directors of Learning and Teaching, and Student Experience, and the Academic Quality Unit on all matters to do with the operation and quality management of your programme.
• Liaison with the Director of Learning and Teaching and the Academic Quality Unit in the appointment of external examiners and arrangements for external examiners to fulfil their duties.
• The organisation of extra-curricular activities—guest speakers, special workshops, social events—to promote the learning culture of your programme.
Quality Enhancement
• The monitoring of the general and educational effectiveness of the programme, ensuring that any perceived weaknesses are addressed.
• The monitoring of the general effectiveness of each course in the programme and working with the relevant Head of Department to agree adjustments to address any perceived difficulties.
• The monitoring of students’ performance, and arrangements for introduction of new measures to address any recurring issues or problems.
• The assurance of support and guidance procedures that meet the needs of the students.
• Promoting, throughout the programme, the general issues of quality in learning and teaching, and looking for measures that will enhance students’ learning experience and engagement.
• The monitoring of examinations and assessments, and proposals of measures to help improve students’ performance.
• The development and submission to FAQSC of any interim changes to the programme, including modifications to course descriptions and Programme Specifications, through the standard modifications procedures.
• The availability of academic colleagues to deal with student queries and concerns. • Consideration of ways of facilitating learning within and from diverse student
groups.
• Facilitation of links between teaching and research across and between courses in the programme
• Implementing specific cross university initiatives such as the Greenwich Graduate Attributes, TESTA & Map My Assessment, and PACE (Programme and Courses Enhancement).
Learning Resources
• Advising the Head of Department and Faculty Operating Officer on matters that relate to resources for the programme.
• Arranging through your Subject Librarian the maintenance of up-to-date texts, e-books, journals and other publications or media that support your students’ studies. • Working with ILS to ensure the software and hardware requirements are met. • Liaising with the Space Management Unit for the appropriate allocation of rooms for
your course.
Academic Leadership
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way. (John C. Maxwell) Leadership Roles
The programme leader has delegated responsibility for the provision of professional leadership that facilitates high quality teaching and the effective use of resources. Other academic staff, with delegated responsibilities, support this leadership function—this will often vary with qualification level (undergraduate or postgraduate) and programme size and may include some or all of the following:
• Admissions Tutor • Senior Tutor • Year Tutor • Course Leaders • Personal Tutors • Disability Advisor
• Director of Learning & Teaching
The Head of Department and/or the Director of Learning and Teaching determines this delegated or dispersed leadership organisation, but as programme leader, you should clearly establish your relationship with these other academic staff and the nature of your own responsibilities in managing and leading the programme effectively.
Your views on the operation of these dispersed leadership roles should be shared with the Director of Learning and Teaching at appropriate times, including at annual/periodic
programme review.
A dispersed or delegated leadership can have benefits, but is only fully effective where responsibilities are clearly defined by the senior management team and understood by all academic staff. Programme leaders should be enabled to have a real involvement in this strategic planning at an advisory level.
Effective academic leadership, dispersed or otherwise, can be used to support a student-centred environment where improvements benefit learners. Quality leadership also focuses on the organisation of learning and teaching enhancement. It is most likely to engender continuous improvement where it successfully promotes a self-critical culture of
professional responsibility, understanding and learning to raise standards. This includes the operation of effective quality assurance and management systems.
The different approaches to leadership and quality management (adapted from Briggs, 2001), include:
• a purposeful response to the changing requirements of the external and internal environment; including an evaluation of information about the effectiveness of the programme’s learning, teaching and assessment strategy, and student retention, progression and attainment; with the facilitation, within the programme team and beyond, of a culture of professional responsibility for quality enhancement; • a strategic response that involves a more instrumental approach to quality where
the focus is more simply achieving the best possible inspection/review outcomes; • a compliant response that focuses on the simplistic response to requirements to
new university or external initiatives; an approach that often manifests itself as a series of short-term responses to requests for information from internal quality bodies or professional bodies; or
• a reactive response that does not enable problems to be identified and tackled routinely such that the outcomes of internal or external monitoring may come as a surprise.
Trowler (1998) describes this more poetically as reconstructing, swimming, coping and sinking. Whilst all approaches may be evident at different times, you as programme leader (along with supporting delegated academic leaders and senior management team) should strive to achieve the purposeful, reconstructing response described above.
A purposeful, reconstructive leadership approach, that engages the commitment of individuals to manage collaboratively as professionals, is more likely to be effective in building sustainable capacity for improvement. An emphasis on the quality assurance process should not be at the expense of the consideration of subject specific pedagogical issues and quality enhancement. Experience suggests that quality enhancement occurs when staff teams meet regularly to build a shared understanding of the programme philosophy and culture of learning and teaching, and to share their practice. The
identification of such collaborative space—in time and space—is an important role for you, your programme team and your senior colleagues. Such engagements are often associated with review and approval —but, as a minimum, regular termly engagements should be the aim to promote quality enhancement.
Individual student learners need a combination of practical support, good information and guidance, a supportive learning environment, well-designed curricula, and effective teaching. This relies partly on the commitment and capacity of individual professionals to create environments and relationships that motivate learners to achieve. To produce benefits for learners, quality management and leadership needs to be able to impact positively on resources, environment, curriculum innovation, information systems, and individual professional practice.
Appendix 4: Reflection on Leadership is an analytical device to help you as programme leader evaluate your and the University’s approach to academic leadership. It is not a reporting document, merely a discovery device that you may find beneficial in your self-appraisal.
Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy
The University’s Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy (LTAS) defines our approaches to learning, teaching and assessment, and provides a stimulus for strategic development. The LTAS ensures that common understanding and purpose underpin programme and course provision activities across the University whilst providing a framework for
course/programme design and validation and review. It can be found along with all other policies on the University’s web pages or Programme Leaders Hub
The LTAS also acts as a framework for programme and course leaders and teams to discuss and promote effective practice in their approach to all aspects of learning, teaching and assessment, including curriculum design and evaluation, and as a basis for deliberation of on-going change and development of approaches to learning and teaching, in terms of planning, delivery and assessment.
The foundation of these principles is realised during the design stages of programme review and approval which is beyond the scope of this guide. However, you, in collaboration with course leaders and other academic leaders, implement these principles through the various management and logistical arrangements you make for each programme cohort. These are covered in the next section on ‘General Management’, but effective and successful
leadership is primarily achieved through the collaborative approach of course leaders and other staff on the programme team.
General Management
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.
Peter F. Drucker
Effective programme leadership involves, in large part, the general management of the programme activities in preparation for, during the course of, and after each academic year. Appendix 1: Programme Management Checklist maps these issues—you may wish to modify this template to suit your programme specific management needs.
A large onus falls to you as the programme leader to produce documentation for students and quality monitoring. In order to ease the burden, there are many templates and
examples of good practice that can be used as the basis for this paperwork (e.g. programme handbooks, monitoring reports, programme specifications, critical review documents, and programme committee agenda and minute templates).
These are normally available from the Academic Quality Unit, which endeavours to keep up-to-date examples of good practice for dissemination and will be pleased to provide you with these. Furthermore, the Academic Quality Unit will discuss with you the requirements for much of this paperwork, and is happy to offer advice on any aspect of the regulations or quality mechanisms. Other support is available from your Director of Learning and Teaching. Programme Handbook
Your programme handbook’s contents will be derived from the documentation produced for approval or review, but will need amending on an annual basis to reflect modifications (if any) to curriculum and procedures. If any University regulatory changes have occurred, the Academic Quality Unit will have notified you or published them on their website. Any such changes must be incorporated within the handbook.
It is good practice to indicate clearly (using a small graphic symbol for example), where there have been modifications to curriculum, regulations or procedures in order to avoid any misunderstandings. This will be a useful reminder to your colleagues too.
You should record and evaluate such changes in the annual monitoring report (AMR) for the annual review/monitoring submission to the FAQSC. This practice ensures that a record of these changes over the period of the review (normally five years) will be maintained. This saves you (or perhaps your successor) a good deal of effort in charting the development of the programme for the review, but more importantly is a good discipline to help facilitate continuous quality enhancement.
n.b: All modifications have to follow the formal procedures. For changes to the course description (the pro forma) and programme specific regulations you should follow the standard procedures for modifications and make sure you get External Examiner approval (speak to your Director of Learning & Teaching or your Faculty Academic Quality Manager regarding how to obtain this). It is not enough simply to inform your programme team. The handbook is normally for a single programme of study but may be a multi-programme handbook, where there is a variety of programmes in a particular discipline that share courses and organisational procedures. In such cases, care must be taken not to confuse
students on any single programme with information that is not pertinent to them. Again, such matters will have been determined at approval/review but those arrangements should be evaluated annually. It is possible, for example, to provide a core programme handbook and a series of programme specific annexes.
All Programme Leaders are required to provide students with essential information about their programme. This may take the form of one or more paper-based or online Student Handbooks. It is possible for this information to be presented in Moodle. A template is available from the Programme Leaders Hub, or listed below:
Essential Information for Students
FRONT COVER: University name + logo
Partner name + logo (if collaborative) Award title(s) for the programme(s)
Academic Year covered by this version of the Handbook CONTENTS
The host Faculty with contact details of:
Programme Leader and team, showing responsibility for individual courses
Faculty-Departmental Office staff contact details Plus for Collaborative
Programmes (names and contact details)
• Link Tutor
• Programme Leader and team at the partner, showing responsibility for individual courses and contact details • Partner's administrative office, with relevant contact details Programme details: • Title
• Award(s)
• Approved mode(s) of study
Permitted length of registration
State minimum and maximum
Programme Specification This should include the programme learning outcomes and information regarding the development of intellectual, subject , practical, transferable and key skills and graduate attributes Course Specifications
Personal and tutorial support arrangements
Include student entitlement if learning ‘at a distance’ from the campus
Arrangements and Opportunities for students to give feedback
• Timings and types of questionnaires and surveys • Departmental Programme Committees
Assessment arrangements, for example:
• Anticipated cycle of assignments and likely timing of examinations
• Web reference to standard University Regulations, including those governing progression, retrieval of failure and
reassessment, and Appeals. Any exceptional regulations approved for this programme should be clearly stated Additional information
for Collaborative Programmes, such as:
• Access to University of Greenwich electronic resources • Information on local library access, IT and private study
resources
• Administrative arrangements (on-line registration, payment of fees etc)
• Facilities available at the partner.
Other information • Accessing information on the student academic timetable. • Arrangements for First Week (induction)
• Student Support arrangements • Greenwich Student Charter • Attendance policy
• Punctuality
• The rights and responsibilities of students • How students will be taught
• How students will learn (including Greenwich Graduate Attributes)
• How formative and summative work will be assessed, moderated and externally examined
• Progression information • What to do if things go wrong
Much of the programme handbook template content items require no explanation here. Do note that ‘Programme Specification’ is a required inclusion for the handbook. Certain items may be omitted or need to be more substantial in some programme documents than in others. For example, not all programmes have an associated professional/accreditation body. Some details may be covered in alternative documents, such as Essential Student Information produced by the Office of Student Affairs (OSA), and therefore only need a cross-reference in the handbook. For example, some programmes provide a study guidance document for students—such guidance, along with learning contracts and Personal
Development Planning, have taken on increasing importance in the context of widening participation and student diversity.
The drafting of the handbook for the next session should start before the end of the academic year in order to allow all relevant staff a view and input to the proposed changes (if any). You must provide all students and staff with the handbook at the start of each academic year.
Do not forget to send a copy of the handbook to your external examiner(s) and upload it into the university’s QA documents repository, once available.
First Week.
Induction is called ‘First Week’ at the university. It is not a teaching week but academic staff should to attend to meet the new intake of students. Apart from engaging them with a range of enjoyable activities alongside the Students Union offer, academic staff will need to provide them with the programme handbook and guide them through an understanding of the regulations and specifics of the programme they are beginning. This will necessarily involve a careful and selective explanation of matters such as core, option and free choice courses, pass/fail regulations, progression and award requirements, deadlines and mitigating circumstances, academic year and timetables, tutorial, personal tutoring and other support, and other programme specific procedures. It is best to make explanations on these matters as brief as possible with direction to appropriate information in your
handbook or the Student Portal. Make sure you are conversant with the University’s New Arrivals and Transitions Policy, and Personal Tutoring Policy that can also be found on the Programme Leaders Hub
Your aim is to develop student awareness and encourage student engagement at this stage. The danger is in losing that initial enthusiasm and excitement of your students, particularly if there is an overemphasis, for example, on failure and extenuating circumstances procedures or similar. It is better instead to tap into that enthusiasm by demonstrating your own
passion for the discipline and the course. Better, too, to get the students to engage in activities designed to introduce them to the modes of study and independent learning that feature in your learning, teaching and assessment strategy. Devise organic activities (both formal and informal) that will help students to get to know each other and key members of staff on your programme as soon as possible. Commit them to good behaviour and conduct that is conducive to learning in a diverse student community. (see Student Charter on the Programme Leaders Hub
Do not consider First Week as a simple and brief number of introductory sessions in the week prior to starting the formal, course-based, teaching. You should provide, particularly in the case of undergraduates, a programme of activities that might extend to the end of the first term or even beyond. That programme will be designed to give students a boost in the necessary skills and capabilities to help them realise their full potential. You will want to pre-empt the sort of problems you encounter in student performances later in the programme by ensuring that matters such as academic writing in your discipline, information retrieval and referencing or a variety of other such support provision are embedded in your curriculum. Any efforts in these directions can pay real dividends in respect of student retention, progression and attainment. Produce a list of topics and areas you want covered in such a programme, discuss these with your programme team, identify who, how and when they can be delivered and evaluate and revise annually. You may have considered some of these activities as curriculum-included, forming part of specific core courses— evaluate such arrangements and make formal modifications, to include or to vary, in the future if necessary.
1. library and computing services; 2. academic writing and referencing; 3. information retrieval exercises; 4. successful approaches to
assignments and examination; 5. effective study techniques; 6. Students Union and Greenwich
Graduate Student Network 7. guest specialist lectures; and 8. cross-year debates or socials and
discipline specific engagements. Assessment Scheduling
Perhaps the single most important aspect that a programme leader should address is oversight of the scheduling of coursework assignment deadlines. This issue, along with assessment volume, causes the most student complaints about programme organisation and can have a profound effect on student retention, progression and attainment.
If all the scheduling of assignments is left entirely to course leaders, you should be
prepared for difficulties. It is not easy to control each course assignment schedule,
particularly in large programmes where there are many options, but it is important that your programme has an agreed assessment strategy. The EDU’s mapping tool helps to visualise this and every programme is now required to use it for Review.
A programme leader should be at least aware of all core course assignment schedules— good practice would involve drawing up a single timetable for each level and pathway, which is reviewed and modified with the programme team prior to the start of each term/year. This collaborative approach will have a positive influence on course integration and the constructive alignment of your course. You will need senior management support in this endeavour.
Student Support & Guidance
This starts with your programme handbook and other materials you provide for students, and ends with the means by which you or other programme staff communicate and consult with students. Refer to the checklist in the adjacent box.
Programme blogs, Moodle (VLE) environment & e-mail makes ‘broadcasting’ to students a relatively simple and straightforward matter, allowing whole-programme or selected communication by e-mail as well as through providing online course materials and discussion boards. To ensure cohesion do not forget to include the members of the programme team as participants.
Support & Guidance Checklist • Handbook
• Programme Information Board • Course on VLE
• Staff names and contacts • Staff consultation availability • Academic tutorial support • Personal tutorial support • Study guides
• Writing and numeracy support • Plagiarism policy
• Course choice/progression guidance • Library services
• Computing services • Careers
• Disability Policy
• Student Wellbeing services including contact information
• Finance and Financial Support including contact information
Tutorial support
More personal communication and guidance relies upon effective tutorial support mechanisms. The opportunity for academic tutorial support now forms a key part of your teaching, learning and assessment strategy with all courses providing opportunities for students to address their academic needs. You, as programme leader, will make yourself available at appropriate (published) times for your students and ensure that all students are assigned a Personal Tutor ideally before arrival and no later than the end of Week 1. Course leaders will assist you in this process by making similar arrangements for discussing
academic matters with students and complying with the requirements of the Personal Tutoring Policy which can be found on the Programme Leaders Hub. The responsibility for these arrangements lies with the Heads of Departments and Directors of Student
Experience, and arrangements are reviewed annually. Be clear on what applies to your programme and interact with those responsible for the arrangements. Personal tutoring support is particularly important at the beginning, middle and end of each term/level in order that students are guided through their option and progression choices.
Good practice in this respect involves scheduling personal tutoring meetings at this time within a programme of scheduled meetings within the year. At other times students need to be provided with clear details as to how they can access their personal tutoring support and yourself in order to get advice on their study or other personal matter. Furthermore, providing telephone and e-mail contact details as well as staff clearly publishing their office times when they can be contacted are now standard practices. If these details or other arrangements are agreed then it is a simple matter to provide that detail in the programme handbook.
Study Guidance
Your programme handbook and the course pro formas should clearly indicate the recommended and other reading matter your students require to support their study. Do not forget to maintain the currency of such lists on an annual basis.
Study guidance provisions have always been important but have taken on an added dimension with widening participation and student diversity. Many students on entry to their programme need guidance in the development of the skills required for independent reflective study. This matter should form part of your learning, teaching and assessment strategy for your programme and be addressed by programme staff in their approach to teaching and feedback on learning. Programme team collaborative evaluation during the year should address this dimension of student guidance. In a wider context all students should have access to a provision that helps them develop their skills, for instance, an online PDP portfolio.
A variety of other student capability issues are having a growing impact on programme management. Foremost amongst these are academic literacy and numeracy, including digital literacy. As programme leader, and in conjunction with your fellow Programme Leaders, the Course Leaders and the Director of Learning & Teaching, you should consider these issues and decide how best to support your students. You could consider introducing academic literacy and/or numeracy needs analysis testing in First Week and provide means for students to address their expertise in these areas.
Information regarding the support available for disabled students can be found on the Programme Leaders Hub.
It is important that all programme staff are aware of the diversity of their student cohort and can provide support for this and other graduate attributes development as an integral part of their teaching. All programmes are required, in a wider context, to have a strategy for skills and attributes development as part of wider employability improvement. As programme leader, you will need to evaluate your strategy on an annual basis. It is also very important to provide information about Extenuating Circumstances
arrangements. As programme leader, you will want to be clear to your students about this process. Refer to the University’s Academic Regulations published on the University’s website.
Plagiarism is another issue that cannot be ignored. Good practice in this context is to provide clear explanations (as is required in the programme handbook template and/or a specific guide) to students of what constitutes an offence. You can illustrate this with real
(anonymised) examples, provide opportunities for students to practise avoiding plagiarism and design coursework assignments that do not encourage plagiarism. You could also provide examples on the VLE, and link to the iProgress course developed by the Library and EDU, and promoted by SUUG. However, this might be provided also in the context of your discipline as an introduction to academic writing and the correct use of citation and bibliography. It might also be part of library and computer information retrieval support exercises. Ideally, it should be a planned component of your learning, teaching and assessment strategy and therefore be integral to curriculum delivery.
If your programme has option courses, continuing students are required to register for their chosen one in the second term for the following academic year. You should be advised on the precise date. Students will want to make an informed choice, so consider arranging course taster or tutorial sessions immediately following on from the assessment period at the end of Term 2 which is often a fallow point in the student life-cycle.. This is particularly important where there are many available options and can help prevent the difficulties students, you and your course leaders encounter following misinformed or illegitimate choices. Ensuring all students do this will enable Space Management to allocate appropriate rooms as numbers of students on courses will be known.
Programme Committee
Programme committees are critical to the management and enhancement of your programme. They are the formal mechanism through which the programme team, comprising Programme Leader, Course Leaders, programme administrators, student programme reps, Students Union faculty reps, subject librarians and technologists (as a minimum), meet regularly to review and discuss all aspects of the programme. They enable a programme team to address current concerns, plan for future delivery, and ensure that the programme remains academically coherent. It is a good place for developing an ethos of partnership with students - as a team, you can openly discuss feedback from student reps. This may include looking at whether the course design is enabling engaging and inspiring
teaching, or the assessments are well aligned to learning outcomes, relevant and designed to engage students in their study. Programme Committees are a formal requirement, and are held 3 times a year (one per term). Students reps are appointed at the start of the year and should be seen as equal members of the committee, although the committee has a right to hold a closed section of the meeting to discuss sensitive issues relating to staff. (See links to the Academic Regulations on the Programme Leader Hub, university’s website, or portal for details).
Student representatives are nominated and elected by the students on the programme. You will need to organise this at the start of each academic year. The numbers of student representatives required depends on programme size, but normally you should arrange for two from each level plus any additional numbers to represent particular pathways or other programme specific routes. If students are less than engaged, you can counter this by fully involving them in the process of setting agendas, and by providing minutes and action responses as quickly as possible following meetings. The University’s Students Union trains Programme Reps at the start of each academic year.
You should view Programme Committees as a means of providing you with feedback to help you improve programme quality. Please publish dates and agendas for each meeting well in advance. If your Department or Faculty Office cannot provide an officer then appoint a committee member to take minutes. As Programme Leader and Chair of the Committee, you ‘own’ the minutes and are responsible for their accuracy.
Your agendas, minutes and actions need to be purposeful with annual monitoring, periodic review, and the Teaching Excellent Framework (TEF) in mind. See the adjacent box on aspects that might be included in a programme committee.
As an effective programme leader you will have responded in situ to any problems that may have arisen and resolved them—do include these on the agenda as a matter of reporting and recording good practice. Programme Committees are not a place for individual student complaint or individual staff initiatives as these are appropriately dealt with in other ways. Encourage your students to discuss any problems in the delivery or assessment of the programme with the relevant course leader or yourself, as soon as such problems arise and well in advance of any scheduled meeting. Departments using alternative student feedback
Aspects covered by Programme Committees The following aspects might be included:
• course/programme structure; • course/programme content;
• Experience of ‘First Week’ and guidance; • Timetabling issues;
• learning resources and infrastructure • teaching, learning and assessment; • assessment scheduling and feedback; • resources;
• placements, laboratories, studies, field trips; • tutorial arrangements; and
• practical/logistical arrangements • Issues surfacing through other feedback
mechanisms, such as Unitu.
The following aspects should not be included: • personal problems of individual students; • academic difficulties of individual students;
and
• allegations of unfair or inappropriate treatment by individual staff or other students.
mechanisms, such as Unitu, can discuss issues that remain unresolved. Problems should similarly be brought to the attention of relevant staff at the earliest opportunity.
Deal with any substantive and legitimate problems and decide appropriate actions. Actions may need to be of the ‘taken on advisement’ sort as consultation may be required with other staff and students not present, or they may require senior management involvement. However, you should deal openly and judiciously with all matters that arise in committee and see through any actions in an opportune manner. Following the meeting send the minutes to all committee members and provide links to students via the channels they use. Standard good practice in agenda setting and minutes should apply. A standard template format for programme committee agenda and minutes can be found in Appendix 2 and 3. Minutes should always indicate when action is to be taken, by whom, and that the outcome of the action is reported at the next meeting. It is important that you respond proactively to student feedback and comments. Common practice is to employ a ‘you said, we did’
approach.
Staffing & Resource Issues
Programme leaders are not line managers of staff and rarely have responsibility for budgets for resources or visiting lecturers. However, they can and should pass on their evaluations and recommendations to the Head of Department, both informally as well as through the appropriate formal processes. An important engagement in this respect is the annual monitoring exercise that should critically appraise, in a constructive manner, the needs of the programme and its constituent courses in order to facilitate improvement or
enhancement of provision. Any such reporting (in reports or in engagement during the monitoring process) should include considerations for known future changes in personnel and other provisions. Ideally, the full impact of such considerations should be agreed with the senior management before May in each academic year—in time to instruct the Faculty support staff about any programme delivery changes and staffing so that they can update Banner before students register their course choice for the next academic session. In
practice, some of these staffing and resource modifications occur after this date and you will have to manage the effects, including possible negotiating different rooms.
Almost inevitably, there are pressures on programme leaders to amend their programme provision in response to resource shortfalls. This can occur where numbers are low (for an intake or for a particular option), where there is particular shortage of expertise (following staff changes for example) or where there is a perceived need to employ specialist
professional visiting lecturers. Such decisions should be made in consultation with you, and with academic coherence and quality fully in mind. Where such changes result in the need for modifications to programme and/or course provision (through the Academic Quality Unit) they need to be implemented well before May when continuing students make their option choices. In practice, later decisions are sometimes unavoidable in which case a careful consideration of personal communication with students is needed. This might involve writing to students making them aware of the changes and outlining their options.
Student Records System - Bannerweb
The student records system details all the enrolment and attainment/progression details about your students. You may not be responsible for the data entry, but you should view these records and liaise with faculty support staff at appropriate times to help in their maintenance. You will need to keep abreast of the following aspects:
• Programme enrolment details/numbers • Progression details/numbers
• Transfers and withdrawals
• Course delivery details (term, day, leader, tutors, etc.) • Course performance (pass and attainment)
• Programme/course retention, progression and attainment
These aspects will need formal evaluation for the annual review report. Additionally, you should keep an eye on these aspects at other times for the sake of efficient housekeeping. During the first term, particularly of the first year of a programme of study, you will need to evaluate student performance in order to help pre-empt or avoid withdrawal or failure problems. This may be done by looking at courses that have early assignments, especially the core courses, in order to gauge non-submission by any students. This is not always possible and you will need the assistance of your course leaders in monitoring student attendance and non-submission. Anything you can devise to help monitor and prevent early withdrawal or failure by new students is time well spent. Your assessment strategy may well include early (formative) assignments in a number of key courses in order to help you in this monitoring process. Other forms of monitoring may be through their personal tutoring support system. You might like to keep a close eye on the attendance register as this will be a clear indication from course leaders on student attendance and performance. Most student attrition occurs before and after the Christmas break.
Admissions
Admission requirements will have been agreed at approval/review, but you should evaluate these on an annual basis by considering intake performance against set requirements, and any changes in the entry qualifications and their suitability. Consult with the Head of Department and/or Director of Learning & Teaching if you feel major changes in admission requirements are needed. Such changes should be formally notified through the programme modification procedures.
If you are a leader of a small discrete programme you are usually required to act as the admissions tutor to that programme. In other instances, particularly for large programmes where you are one of a number of programme leaders, the Faculty may have appointed an Admissions Tutor to act for the programme(s) as a whole. In either case you should be involved in the procedures of admissions (reading applications, interviewing and responding to enquiries) though the administrative burden of these tasks are undertaken by the Faculty Office staff. Liaise with these staff and be sure of your and their responsibilities.
Quality Assurance and Enhancement
Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.
Albert Einstein Regulatory Framework
It goes without saying that you need to be familiar with the academic regulations, both general and programme- specific. There is no shortcut to reading the university’s Academic Regulations located from the Programme Leaders Hub.
Knowledge of the regulatory framework is particularly critical when evaluating and advising on student options, RPL, assessment, grading, progression, exclusion and awards. You will want to ensure that students are advised of their options in all circumstances so as not to fall foul of some regulatory hurdle—even something as simple as not retrieving a core course. Finding at the Progression and Award Board that one of your students is one 15-credit level-4 course light of an honours degree is not a position you or your students want to be found.
Quality Assurance Procedures
Academic Standards are monitored through AQSC, and the Academic Quality Unit determine the procedures for the quality assurance of your programme. Essentially, there are two exercises.
• The annual monitoring and review of all programmes to assess whether each is meeting its stated objectives and maintaining the standard of the award to which it leads.
• The periodic review undertaken when each programme or wider cluster of programmes is considered for re-approval (normally every five years).
Course Evaluation
The university uses a course evaluation system called Evasys, which is implemented through a Moodle block. The questionnaire consists of a set of core and optional questions that are selected, in consultation with others, by the Faculty Director of Student Experience. Course evaluations can be undertaken mid- and end-cycle. An important part of the Student Course Evaluation Survey System is that the results must be considered and action taken to deal with issues raised, where appropriate. This will be organised at departmental and Faculty level and discussed in Student Experience Committees. Results will also be used in annual Course Monitoring Reports, which will inform Annual Programme Monitoring.
Subject Assessment Panels (SAPs) and Progression and Award Boards (PABs)
SAPs are organised by Departments and PABs are organised by the Faculty Academic Quality Officers. Similarly, formal communications with externals is through the Academic Quality Unit. In practice, you should liaise with these staff in order to ensure the optimal scheduling of boards and their arrangements. As programme leader, you should liaise informally with external examiners concerning these arrangements to ensure the smooth running of the programme examination procedures. This is acceptable because you and the external may be the only two experts in the discipline concerned in these various staff groups.
Furthermore, you are best placed to answer any queries the external may have about the programme provision and thus aid them in their consideration of standards. You should also liaise with the SAP Chair (normally the Head of Department or nominee) and PAB Chair. This liaison with externals and others is particularly important on the day of panels and boards when externals are present. You will ensure that you meet their needs and requests for access to student assignments, examination scripts, course results summaries and course leaders, as well as such things like as travel arrangements and expenses..
External Examiners
The University of Greenwich formally appoints external examiners and provides information to external examiners in the form of a General Guidance Note. As the programme leader in the subject area, your Head of Department and Faculty Academic Quality Unit Manager will ask you for suggestions about appointments. However, it is important—as a quality
standard—that the Academic Quality Unit makes all formal contact with a prospective external examiner.
An important quality assurance procedure involves the internal scrutiny and
validation/moderation of examination paper scripts prior to submission to the external examiner(s). The Faculties have their own operational guidance for this internal validation. Make sure you are fully familiar and engaged with the process. Externals are rightly unimpressed by draft papers that contain simple errors of style, spelling or content that should have been dealt with beforehand.
All external examiners are required to submit reports annually before the end of July. Reports for post-graduate programmes should be submitted within one month for the main PAB for the programme. External examiners are asked to ideally submit their report
electronically to the External Examiners’ website within one month of the Examiners Meeting, although it can be done in hard copy. An automatic email notification alerts the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) the Pro-Vice Chancellor of Faculty for the programme leading to the award, the relevant Head of Department, the Faculty Director of Learning and Teaching and you, the Programme Leader, that a report has been received.
External examiners should cover the following topics in their reports:
• the names of the courses and associated assessments for those courses that the examiner has reviewed and, where appropriate, the names of the individual partners in which these have been taught;
Vice Chancellor’s Office. Educational Development Unit. Page 21
• the structure, organisation, design and marking of assessments, which will include commentary on the lessons to be learnt from the assessments, for the curriculum, syllabus, teaching methods, resources and the way academic standards are being monitored;
• comment upon the number of courses reviewed, the number and nature of assessments seen and the sample size provided to assess student achievement; • the appropriateness of the standards of the award being examined;
• the overall performance of the students in relation to their peers, taking account of work at the same level on comparable awards in other institutions, which should include a commentary on the strengths and weaknesses of the student group and the quality of knowledge and skills, both general and subject specific, demonstrated by the students under consideration;
• the extent to which the programmes of study leading to the award and/or component courses meet the overall aims of any relevant PSRBs;
• commentary on observed good practice and innovation in teaching and the learning environment;
• action points and recommendations for the University to consider as part of its development for forthcoming academic sessions;
• commentary on the performance of individual teaching centres where programmes are taught under franchise agreements in partnership arrangements;
All reports are acknowledged on receipt. Responses take two forms; firstly, the completion of an action plan by November within the Programme Annual Monitoring Report (PMR) and, subsequently, a formal departmental written response, endorsed by the PVC of Faculty. As mentioned above, programme leaders will receive these reports. There should be no surprises as they represent the deliberations you had with the examiner(s) during the course of the panels and boards. You should discuss with the Head of Department/Academic Quality Unit and Director of Learning and Teaching, your response to this annual report. The Academic Quality Unit conducts an annual audit of all external examiner reports along with the responses to them. This is a critical reading to identify any general points,
particularly on assessment procedures, issues of concern and to draw out aspects of good practice for dissemination. The conclusions may lead to recommendations to Academic Council for changes to policy or guidelines on external examining.
Annual Programme Monitoring
Each year you will need to complete a self-reflective review of your programme in a standard format. The Programme Monitoring Report (PMR) is a retrospective review of the previous year and helps to define the actions needed to improve the programme. It also forms the basis of the critical evaluation required for Periodic Review. The Academic
Sources of evidence for self-monitoring • Student records system
• First destination statistics • External examiners reports
• Course/Programme committee/ student-staff consultation
• You said, we did
• Reports of staff development, teaching quality enhancement and peer observation activities
• Employability activity and results • Feedback from advisory, professional or
Quality Unit provides details of these procedures in the Quality Assurance Handbook (appendix M3), which can be found on the AQU website. The procedures adhere to the general expectations of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) within the Quality Code which sets out the expectations which all HE providers are expected to meet. You should ensure that as a programme leader you are fully conversant with all aspects of the Quality Code in order to carry out your role successfully and to ensure the best experience for your students. These formal requirements could be viewed as a rather tedious task with which you must simply comply. However, as a programme leader who approaches leadership with purpose (see approaches to programme leadership) you will be looking to evaluate information (see the above box for sources) about the effectiveness of your learning, teaching and
assessment strategy with a critical appraisal of the issues. In particular, you will need to focus on student retention, progression, attainment and ways to enhance these. The effective programme leader takes this evaluation and produces a clear action or development plan.
Programme (Periodic) Review
The purpose of periodic review is to monitor the quality and standards of a programme enabling the University to check the health of its provision at key milestones, normally every 5 years. It provides a programme team with an opportunity to take a fresh look at its courses, examine the student experience over a longer term, consider a range of enhancements and undertake
environmental scanning to see what others in the sector are doing. It is also a way to identify and disseminate good practice in learning, teaching and assessment in your faculty and across the university.
Programme teams at the university are expected to work as a collaborative design team, and engage in subject and pedagogical developmental activities (appendix 7).
Programme data is captured in the university’s dashboard via Tableau Reader, which is an important source of information. The documentation for Review is driven by a series of templates comprising several sections each requiring a narrative and/or statistical analysis. These are:
• Development Process to complete the review preparation • Programme and partner history
• Review of curriculum developments in the last period of approval • Statistical analysis of student recruitment, progression and achievement • Issues arising from annual monitoring
• Summary of view of students on the programme
• Views of External Examiners and others external to the University • Overview of operational arrangements of the programme
• Proposed curriculum revisions for the future.
• Reflection on resources provision during the period of approval and into the future • Appendices: for example, programme monitoring reports, external examiners
reports, programme committee meeting minutes, student surveys, or any others that you believe are relevant.
The university provides clear requirements on performance indicators—these are subject to annual review and you should address these in your report. Consider the performance of
individual courses in these respects, looking at trends over previous years. A review of the evidence will lead to judgements in terms of strengths and weaknesses. When making your assessments, it is important to be self-critical and objective in your judgements. Do not simply rely on the quantitative indicators—this is a qualitative process. Real strengths are aspects of the provision that are above normal levels of performance (i.e. something more than routinely expected). For example, pass rates that are above the course average maybe a clear strength. However, take care that your evaluation is not open to misinterpretation— for example if it implies that you are artificially promoting better pass rates. Exceeding the required performance indicators should not lead to complacency. Do look at high
performing indicators as critically as others.
The test of a key strength is to look at the impact on the learner. For example, if assessment leads to meaningful feedback and individual learning plans for the learners, and learners receive appropriate additional support, then this is a clear strength. The assessment is making an impact and the learners are benefiting. If levels of performance fall below what is normally expected, then this becomes a significant weakness.
A common weakness in the self-evaluation process is simply to describe what is found in the evidence. For example, ‘All learners have access to the Internet.’ A more evaluative
statement would be, ‘All learners have good access to the Internet and use it frequently using university supplied equipment or their own mobile devices; as evidenced by the April programme committee minutes.’ Here the judgement has gone beyond a mere statement of fact and now evaluates the quality of access (good), the impact (use it frequently) and quality of choice (type of equipment) with justification. A further refinement might be, ‘All learners’ digital literacy are enhanced through frequent but judicial use of digital media in course assignment work.’
Always avoid vague language. For example, ‘Some of the laboratory facilities could be improved.’ Which facilities? How serious is the problem? A more specific statement would be, ‘The Chemistry laboratories are too cramped for the current numbers at level 6—they were designed for a maximum of 20 students.’
Take care not to name individuals. Therefore, ‘Some concerns were expressed by students about some visiting lecturers’ punctuality’ …is preferable to ‘Fred Bloggs and Minnie Mouse only do half-hour tutorials and then leave.’ A criticism like this latter point should be in a proper memo (with evidence) from you to your Head of Department and not in an annual monitoring report.
When presenting the evidence to support the judgements, it is important to provide the actual evidence rather than just the source. For example, a strength could be ‘improving retention on the programme’. The evidence would be taken from the Student Records and be given in the form, for example, of a retention improvement from 43% (2012/13; 68 students) to 67% (2013/14; 75 students).
Student Surveys
Planning and Statistics (PAS) oversee the preparations, promotion and management of the National Student Survey, key internal student course and programme surveys and any other
relevant surveys required by the University and will advise you on the dates that these are to be carried out. The Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) takes place 6 months after graduation in Jan of the following year. Such survey information can provide you with an overview of the programme from the student perspective. It helps to ensure that students have a say in the quality of their learning and an opportunity to make
suggestions about programme design, delivery and assessment. Contact the PAS for further assistance with this.
Action/Development Plans
Action/Development plans are written to address the weaknesses identified in your programme self-evaluation. They may also build on strengths and be a mechanism to implement other necessary changes and improvements. Typically, programme leaders produce action plans that address a limited number of problem issues, particularly those identified by external examiners. Development plans are a more strategic approach to quality enhancement and enable a programme leader to communicate how any weaknesses will be remedied to students.
All key stakeholders should be involved in drawing up the actions to address the identified issues. It is poor practice to give someone responsibility for an action who has not been fully involved in the decision-making. Development plans should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound); the following key headings should help to formulate your plans. Remember that in your plan you can only include those issues and targets that you can achieve in the context of your programme leadership responsibilities. Other issues should be identified and discussed with your Faculty Director of Learning & Teaching and/or the Head of Department/Academic Quality Unit.
• Issue: The weakness to be addressed or strength that requires some consolidating action.
• Priority level: Self-assessment may lead to the identification of a number of
strengths and weaknesses. Set the priority level based upon the extent to which the issues impact upon the needs, experiences and achievements of the learners. Set a priority level of high, medium or low.
• Targets/outcomes: This is the final desired (quantifiable) outcome when the issue has been addressed.
• Action(s): These are the detailed and specific activities necessary to achieve the target. Avoid statements of broad intention or simple aspiration. For example, a weak statement is, ‘Organise an improved induction programme’. This should be more specific and detailed, for example, ‘Include two ½-day information retrieval events, one with library and one in computer-lab, during student induction.’ • Deadline: The date(s) when the action(s) will be complete and the target(s)
achieved. Set realistic time-scales to achieve each target. If the target is long term, then break it down into stages and set a date for each stage.
• Success criteria: How do you know the target has been achieved successfully? State the criteria that will be used to show that the action taken has been effective in addressing the issue.
• Responsibility: name a single person to lead on the action and ensure that the outcome is achieved by the deadline. Be clear on your authority—if it is not you as programme leader then the action and responsibility may need approval through the Department’s management team. The person named should have ownership for the action and will have been involved in the planning of the actions.
• Monitoring responsibility: Ideally, this should be someone different to the above. In practice if you as programme leader are the named person then you will also monitor and report in the normal manner. If the named person is another then senior management will determine monitoring arrangements.
• Resources and costs: Indicate any known costs and resources that are required to achieve the plan.
• Communication: How will you communicate the issues and steps taken to your students?
Resources
Your main sources of information are the Learning Quality Unit team and information on their website, and in key university strategic and policy documents. Members of the teams are associated with specific faculties and details of your faculty academic quality unit members can be found on the AQU website. http://wwww.gre.ac.uk/offices/aqu
You will also find on the website the following information which will help you in your role as programme leader:
Academic Regulations, Policies and Procedures Quality Assurance Handbook and Procedures, Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy External Examining
Roles and Responsibilities of Programme Leaders – a checklist of tasks
The following section is divided into different areas using prompts and questions to help you identify particular responsibilities and, although primarily aimed at those new to the role, it is hoped that it will serve as useful tool for more experienced colleagues to dip into.
Tasks for the start of the Academic Year – before students arrive Marketing, recruitment and selection
• How do I ensure effective liaison with the relevant local and university marketing teams?
• Who is my point of contact in the marketing department and what is their role? • Who is responsible for my programme’s entry in the prospectus and on the website?
How will I liaise with them?
• Who is responsible for the advertising of my programme?
• How do I ensure the programme is marketed so as to optimise applications? • Is my programme involved in Clearing? If so, what is my role in this?
• Are potential students interviewed or tested before they are offered a place on the programme? Who is responsible for this and what is my role?
• In the context of marketing my programme, is there contact with Schools, Colleges, employers or other institutions or professional bodies? Who is responsible for this and what is my role?
• Is my programme publicised through Recruitment Fairs and Open Days or other events such as summer schools? Who is responsible for this and what is my role? • How is information about new students’ special needs and/or requirements
gathered? How is this communicated to the programme team, and me, and what is my role?
• How do I ensure that relevant information is delivered to students via the acceptors portal?
• What other questions/information do I need about marketing, recruitment and selection?
NB: If you are unclear about any of the above you should check with your Head of Department/Academic Quality Unit or Director of Learning and Teaching.
Staffing, Rooming and Timetabling
Initial allocation of teaching and tutorial duties to staff is normally done by the Head of Department in consultation with Programme leaders. Rooming requests can be co-ordinated with the Space Management Unit.
• Who is responsible for the allocation of staff to the courses on my programme? • If my programme involves new staff, or staff who have not worked on the
programme previously, who is responsible for briefing them, when is this done and what is my role?
• Are there changes to the programme, e.g. emerging developments with implications for delivery? Who is responsible for briefing staff about these and organising appropriate staff development?
• Who is responsible for rooming and liaising with the Space Management Unit? Can I request particular rooms and if so, what is the deadline for this?
