Quality and standards in English higher education
Academic experience
Students on courses at providers registered with the Office for Students should receive a high quality academic experience.
Each course should have the following characteristics:
Up-to-date
Courses should be up-to-date. This means a course should reflect current thinking and practices in the subject it covers and the way it is taught.
This should include any recent developments in the subject or new research, and any professional and industrial developments that are relevant.
It should also reflect any developments in teaching and learning and the resources that support it.
- A provider has plans to make changes to a course that will mean the course stays up-to-date.
- Research and scholarship inform course content, including topics of study and reading lists.
- A course does not require significant changes to keep its content or approach to teaching up-to-date.
- Teaching that does not follow current thinking and practice. For example, a provider might deliver a course wholly or in part online but do so in an inappropriate way.
- The content of a course or the way it is taught has not been updated for years and is now out of step with current academic thinking. This may depend on the nature of the course. For example, modules on understanding tax in a course on accountancy might need to be updated frequently. Whereas management courses in this area may not.
- A course that does not contain content required by a professional, statutory or regulatory body (PSRB), especially where this creates a risk to the public. For example, if this relates to courses in medicine or teaching.
Challenging
A higher education course should provide its students with 'educational challenge'.
This means that the rigour and difficulty of the course should suit:
- its nature
- the level at which it is delivered (for example, undergraduate or postgraduate)
- the subject matter.
- A research degree course focuses on a research question that provides ample scope for original ideas.
- An integrated undergraduate foundation year prepares its students for successful undergraduate study.
- Students on an integrated masters' course at different stages of learning are taught together in a way that doesn't recognise their different levels of learning.
Coherent
A higher education course should also be 'coherent'. This breaks down into three areas:
- The content of the course should balance breadth and depth. It should not be so broad that students cannot study material in depth, or so narrow that it limits appropriate opportunities for study.
- The course should teach the subjects and skills it covers in an appropriate order. This might mean that they build on each other throughout the course.
- Key concepts should be introduced at appropriate points.
- Research students have access to courses on research skills at the appropriate time before or during their research programme.
- Students learn key, foundational concepts before they move onto more difficult topics. For example, a course that requires competence in mathematics teaches it before or alongside the topics that it underpins.
- The content of a three-year undergraduate degree does not give students the chance to study optional subjects beyond a mandatory core.
- A module with 20 credits contains too much material for students to demonstrate deep understanding.
- Practical or practice-based components are not taught in an appropriate order. For example, the delivery of laboratory practical sessions is disconnected from related theory.
- A course offers students a wide choice of modules but the choices do not lead to a coherent learning experience.
Effectively delivered
Providers must deliver their courses effectively. This covers the way they are taught, supervised and assessed.
The methods the provider uses for delivering its courses must be relevant to the content of the course. This may, for example, consider the balance of lectures, seminars, group work or practical study.
It must also find the right balance between directed and independent study or research.
- A course is taught through large-scale lectures but also provides opportunities for small group teaching.
- Students have sufficient opportunities to engage directly with teaching staff, including where parts of a course are delivered remotely.
- A postgraduate research course does not offer regular and effective supervision sessions, or opportunities for structured engagement with other researchers.
- The course does not integrate professional or practice-based elements with academic elements. For example, an apprenticeship does not require academic reflection on work-based learning.
- Feedback or assessment does not support learning because it is not sufficient or timely.
Requires students to develop relevant skills
A course should require students to develop relevant skills.
Specifically, 'relevant skills' refers to knowledge and understanding that are relevant for the subject matter and level of the course.
This includes cognitive, practical, and transferable skills and professional competencies.
- Students on a course must develop and demonstrate intellectual skills, such as evaluating evidence, mobilising an argument, and solving problems.
- A course designed to lead to a particular profession does not require students to develop and demonstrate the skills they will need to succeed in the profession.
Find out more
For more details, see 'condition B1: Academic experience' of our conditions of registration with the OfS.
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