Module Catalogue

Over the summer months, we have been working with departments to gather data for the postgraduate section of the module catalogue. This work is now complete, and the finished catalogue is therefore now available online.

We anticipate that the module catalogue will be a useful resource for both staff and students, and we would like to thank all those who have submitted data for the catalogue, which we recognise has been challenging in some cases. Our ultimate aim is that the catalogue will be populated and maintained automatically as part of the – to be developed - module and course approval system (see below), and we believe that this approach will deliver maximum impact and efficiency for all stakeholders.

If colleagues in departments have any additional suggestions as to how we might further develop the catalogue in the future to deliver maximum value, then please do get in touch. We would also be most grateful if you could publicise the existence of the module catalogue within your department.

Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR)

We are pleased to confirm that all final year undergraduate students will receive a Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) when they graduate in summer 2012.

As colleagues will be aware from previous updates, the HEAR is intended to replace the existing student transcript. In addition to information about degree classification and the institutional context, it will also include information about prizes, volunteering, involvement with sports clubs etc. This presents a number of challenges in being able to generate, verify and record centrally this wider variety of information on each student and the HEAR Project Board, reporting to AQSC, is currently working through the implications of these. A key principle of the project approach is to embed, as far as possible, the production of the HEAR within existing processes to lessen the impact on academic and administrative departments.

A small trial of producing the HEAR has already taken place, as has work to identify the additional information which will be included in the Warwick HEAR. In the coming weeks we will need to contact departments for information about the prizes they award so that these achievements can also be included on the HEAR. We will also be putting together a more detailed set of web-pages aimed at students which we will make available for departments to reuse within their own web-site structures to inform students about the introduction of the HEAR. Further information about the HEAR can be found online.

Course approval

In the last update, we mentioned that a 'mini' Business Process Review (BPR) for course approval had taken place with academics and administrative staff. Work has now been undertaken to map out a new process for course approval which seeks to reduce duplication of work and the time it takes to get courses approved, whilst maintaining the rigour this crucial aspect of our quality assurance framework. The new process was presented to the participants of the BPR at a follow-up meeting in late September, and the valuable feedback obtained will inform further streamlining prior to a wider consultation through the various TQ committees in due course. We will continue to provide further updates as this project progresses.

24/10/2011