Broadening Strands overview Caroline Campbell (Languages and Cross-Cultural Understanding) Fiona Douglas (Media, Culture and Creativity) Rafe Hallett (Personal and Professional Development) Bonnie Meekums (Mind and Body) William Young (Creating Sustainable Futures) DSE Forum 23 April

Curriculum Enhancement Project A Broadening Strand is: A co-ordinated and structured series of related elective modules allowing sustained exploration of a specific subject, issue or skill which lies beyond the primary disciplinary content of a student’s programme.” Broadening Strands: – have a clear focus but include a range of alternative modules – allowing choice for students and some flexibility in timetabling around study for the home degree – offer modules over at least 2 levels (and ideally 3 levels) to allow for progression – are constructed so as to ensure that a student who exits after study at only one level also has a satisfactory and stimulating experience – are sufficiently flexible to accommodate unorthodox progression paths – e.g. a student who begins a strand at L1, exits for a year and subsequently re-enters, or a student who exits one strand after L1 and begins another at L2. In some cases, however, such ‘transfers’ would continue to be subject to completion of an appropriate pre-requisite. 2

Elective Modules should: – be appropriate to be taken by students from outside the discipline. – provide opportunities for student engagement in addition to large- group lecturing so as to facilitate deeper learning and academic/ social interaction between individuals drawn from different degree programmes. – normally be 10 or 20 credits so that they can be more readily accommodated within the home programme of the elective student. – where necessary pre-requisites for elective modules should be maintained, but Schools/Faculties should ensure that students have a means to meet the pre-requisites of modules in higher levels (i.e. if a level 2 elective module has a level 1 module as a pre-requisite then that level 1 module should be offered as an elective, or another means of meeting the pre-requisite identified). All elective modules will form part of a Broadening Strand. Overview Broadening Strands 3

Two types of broadening possibilities 4 In both cases, there must be opportunities for progression Students should have opportunities to broaden their intellectual horizons. Across new discipline areas – ‘Renaissance student seeking enlightenment’ – E.g. across traditional divides e.g. Sciences to Arts Within broad discipline area – ‘added value’ – E.g. within ‘languages’, ‘Arts & Humanities subjects’ etc

10 Strands STRAND TITLELEADERCONTACT DETAILS Languages and Cross-Cultural UnderstandingCaroline Campbell Media, Culture and CreativityFiona Douglas Ethics, Religion and LawJamie Dow Technology and its ImpactsGraeme Gooday Personal and Professional DevelopmentRafe Hallett Enterprise and InnovationAlison McKay Mind and BodyBonnie Meekums Power and ConflictNick Robinson Exploring the SciencesDoug Stewart Creating Sustainable FuturesWilliam Young 5

Overall picture (by Faculty April 2013) 6

Distribution of modules across strands April 2013) 7 N.B. Modules can appear in more than one strand

8 ARTS BIOL ENV ENG ESSL LUBS MAPS M&H PVAC N.B subject to change

9 Comments, suggestions & input most welcome! Contact relevant strand leader Over time, consider where modules sit in strands and whether new modules are needed. What about interdisciplinary possibilities? What about gateway modules and pre-requisites? How open are your electives to students from ‘outside’ the discipline? Could some modules act as pathways to others? Do all students in your School have opportunity to undertake electives? What about JH students? Some questions/things you might want to start thinking about. Strand leaders will be engaged in ongoing dialogue and consultation with Schools, programme and module leaders, so please feed in your ideas. Strand leaders have been appointed for 2.5 years, so there’s plenty of time and opportunity for discussion …! Is there provision for progression?

10 Any questions?

ARTS 11

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES 12

ENVIRONMENT 13

ENGINEERING 14

ESSL 15

LUBS 16

MAPS 17

Medicine & Health 18

PVAC 19

Cross-Faculty 20