Teachers’ and Advisors’ Conference30 April 2015
The Leeds Curriculum
- a voyage of discovery
Karen Llewellyn and Caroline Campbell
* Overview of a Leeds education
* Focus on ‘Broadening’
* Discussion
then… Lunch !
Leeds Curriculum
Questions to reflect on
In your view…
• What is different or distinctive about a Leeds education?
• What elements are of particular benefit for your students?
• What more could we do within our curriculum to enhance a student’s academic experience?
Rationale for change
• HE landscape changing: fees increase, increased competition from UK and overseas
• Shift in student motivation: value for money, greater focus on employability
• Development of more rounded graduates to compete more effectively in the workplace who can meet employer demands
• Provision of greater clarity around the information and guidance which informs student choice, greater scrutiny with KIS
• Improved articulation of what a Leeds degree can offer in an increasingly competitive market
What is the Leeds Curriculum?
Learning in a research environment
3 key elements:1. Research-based Learning (RBL) – research
at the heart of a student’s academic experience culminating in a final year project (FYP)
2. Core Programme Threads – Ethics & Responsibility, Global & Cultural Insight & Employability
3. Broadening – opportunities to expand knowledge and skills beyond conventional disciplinary boundaries
What is the Leeds Curriculum?
Research-based Learning (RBL)
Level 1: Learning about research
Level 2: Learning how to do research
Level 3: Doing the research (FYP)
Leeds Curriculum
2. Core Programme Threads running through every programme
• Ethics & responsibility - engaging in ethical issues to demonstrate how to act responsibly and professionally and to make informed decisions
• Global & cultural insights - opportunities to engage with and value multiple perspectives, e.g. social, geographic, political, economic, legal, environmental, and technological. Also acknowledging and appreciating the implications of diversity
• Employability - raising awareness of key attributes and skills and how these can be developed to fulfil career ambitions, to make the transition from student to professional and to become more employable
Leeds Curriculum: Broadening
Why Broaden?
• Enriching the individual’s academic skills and capabilities
• Transferable skills and employability
• Enriching the individual’s academic experience – a chance to pursue personal interests and enthusiasms
Leeds Curriculum: Broadening
What’s distinctive about broadening at Leeds?
Broadening opportunities that:
• Reflect the breadth of research and teaching at a major Russell Group university
• Are presented in a structured way to facilitate informed student choice
• Embody principles of progression by academic level
• Combine conventional academic study with learning through doing
• Harness innovative/flexible means of delivery and assessment
Leeds Curriculum: Broadening
Broadening - within and/or outside a degree programme:
Through reference to 10 Discovery Themes
1. Creating Sustainable Futures
2. Enterprise and Innovation
3. Ethics, Religion and Law
4. Exploring the Sciences
5. Language and Intercultural Understanding
6. Media, Culture and Creativity
7. Mind and Body
8. Personal and Professional Development
9. Power and Conflict
10. Technology and its Impacts
Leeds Curriculum: Broadening
On most programmes students engage with Discovery Themes by choosing from a range of discovery modules
• Discovery modules include teaching designed as part of existing disciplinary programmes across the University
• Discovery Themes as a means to promote development of bespoke interdisciplinary discovery modules
Leeds Curriculum: Broadening
Looking inside selected themes: Personal and Professional Development
The Digital StudentIntroducing students to digital scholarship and identity at University
Level 1, 20 credits
The Digital ProfessionalDeveloping students digital presence for personal and professional success
Level 2, 20 credits
Citizen MediaExisting ICS module, raising debates about digital communities, networks and cultures
Level 3, 20 credits
Leeds Curriculum: Broadening
Looking inside selected themes: Creating Sustainable Futures
Discovery modules are grouped as sub-themes – allowing students to:
• Understand the science behind concerns about environmental and societal sustainability
• Engage with the principles of sustainability management and policy making
• Understand human dimension of sustainability: economic, social, cultural, legal etc.
• Get personally involved in sustainability projects
• Gain and practice employability skills for managing sustainability in the workplace
Leeds Curriculum: Broadening
Looking inside selected themes: Language and Intercultural Understanding
Discovery modules are grouped as sub-themes – allowing students to:
• Enhance existing linguistic skills or learn new languages
• Gain academic understanding of how language works, develops and changes
• Explore aspects of the cultural variety of our world – engaging with literature, film, theatre, photography, the visual arts etc.
• Explore historical and social diversity – across time and space
Leeds Curriculum
Students can plan their own progression path – choosing what they want to study and how far they want to take their interests
Discovery Themes have their own distinctive focus – but are also deliberately designed to overlap at the margins
Scope to enhance:
• Academic skills/understanding
• Practical skills/understanding
• Personal interests/enthusiasms
• Personal development
• Life after the University of Leeds
Leeds Curriculum: Broadening
Communicating ‘Broadening & ‘Discovery’
• Online Presentation of themes
• Discovery Themes website
• Discovery Themes Fairs: September for arriving students; May for continuing students
Reflections…
What is different or distinctive about a Leeds education?
Is there any element of particular benefit for your students?
What more could we do within our curriculum to enhance a student’s
academic experience?
Leeds Curriculum