Dr Peter Smith Associate Dean (Education & Student Experience) Faculty of Social & Human Sciences Associate, Economics Network September 2011 Curriculum Innovation at the University of Southampton: Curriculum design for a post-Browne world

DEE conference September 2011 The HE environment from 2012 A more competitive market for higher education? Market intervention creates market distortions Changing student expectations Impact on the pattern of demand? Enhanced focus on future earnings potential?

DEE conference September 2011 Curriculum design 2011 Radical reform or inertia? Periodic programme review Research and teaching Research-led teaching Teaching for research Producing professional economists Graduate destinations … –equipping our graduates for life after Uni …

DEE conference September 2011 Curriculum design 2012 QAA Economics subject benchmarks –provide a foundation –but can be achieved in a subset of modules in a programme Student choice and opportunity –maintaining disciplinary coverage and rigour –broadening horizons

DEE conference September 2011 Curriculum innovation at Southampton to build a curriculum for our students that: –delivers a high quality educational experience –prepares them for their life as a graduate –reflects and preserves the strengths of the university –recognises the internal and external constraints

DEE conference September 2011 Curriculum design for choice and opportunity Laying the disciplinary foundations Continue to build within discipline; opportunities for independent study via research: in discipline or interdisciplinary Build on disciplinary knowledge and understanding; opportunity to choose to deepen further or expand perspectives Part 1 (NQF level 4) Part 2 (NQF level 5) Part 3 (NQF level 6) & Part 4 where applicable Graduate Passport

DEE conference September 2011 Broadening horizons Enabling our students to look beyond their disciplinary boundaries –if they wish to do so …in a managed way so we do not raise expectations beyond what can be delivered –need to work within available resources –and to recognise the internal and external constraints Rooms/timetable, IT, staff QA infrastructure, fees, accreditation & regulation

DEE conference September 2011 Modules under development Expected for 2011/12 S2 Communicating with web-based maps Education for health & wellbeing Global Health Living with environmental change Total enterprise simulation Work futures in a global context Also under development Crime and security beyond the state Global challenges Health care ethics The human brain and society Jekyll or Hyde Managing risk and uncertainty The pathology of human disease Sink or swim Sustainability in the local and global environment Further call for new module ideas to be developed ready for 2012/13

DEE conference September 2011 Example: Living with Environmental Change Emanates from a multidisciplinary research group Lectures from specialists in a range of disciplines Backed up by interactive facilitated workshops –with online multidisciplinary support materials on edshare –including podcasts, journal articles, datasets, web links Students will become part of a learning community to help shape the content by identifying key topics Assessment: –online quizzes (40%), group oral presentation at an end-of-module conference (30%), online resource package designed for a lay audience (30%)

DEE conference September 2011 Other modules available in 2011/12 Languages ArabicLatin ChineseRussian FrenchSpanish GermanPortuguese ItalianPerhaps Polish Japanese Other modules include: The search for life in the cosmos Gender and society Introduction to social & cultural archaeology The living earth Biology, behaviour and learning Perception Knowledge and mind Introduction to political philosophy

DEE conference September 2011 CIP in 2011/12 (semester 2) Programmes involved: –Applied Social Sciences –Archaeology –Economics –Educational Studies –History –Mathematics –Music –Philosophy –Politics & International Relations –Population & Geography –Sociology & Social Policy