11 - Wales - Curriculum
Prospective students apply for a specific programme when they apply for
admission. Programmes typically focus on a particular subject area, but
there are also combined studies programmes involving two, or possibly
three, specialisations. There is normally also some choice within each
programme. Typically, a relatively fixed menu of course modules covers
the core knowledge of the subject, and is combined with an element of
choice, increasing in the latter years of the course of study, with
regard to the more specialised aspects of the subject area.
Institutions
may also choose to offer courses that are specifically intended to meet
the needs of the local community, such as part-time courses providing
professional updating, which people attend on day-release from work or
attend in the evening, or leisure courses on matters of potential
interest such as local history or geography, or language or literature
classes.
Increasing numbers of courses are available on a
modular and/or part-time basis. Modular courses provide increased
flexibility to both institutions and students by making it easier for
institutions to offer their courses either full- or part-time, and by
enabling students to move in and out of study programmes and
institutions.
Credit transfer schemes, which are often linked to
modular systems of study, allow students to build up credits towards a
full qualification. In England, a number of credit consortia (voluntary
groups of institutions) have collaborated over many years on the
development and use of credit based systems. More recently, there has
been convergence in respect of the basis upon which credit is awarded,
and the credit tariff. In 2005, the sector-wide 'Measuring and
Recording Student Achievement Steering Group' consulted stakeholders on
developing national credit arrangements in England, and found a clear
consensus for national arrangements in the form of flexible guidelines.
In December 2006, the Group published proposals for credit arrangements
for England (Universities UK, 2006) which can articulate with the
European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS).
In
Wales, since 2003, all accredited learning has been gradually brought
into a single unifying structure referred to as the Credit and
Qualifications Framework for Wales (CQFW). The majority of Welsh
universities continue to work collaboratively on its implementation;
the framework includes a credit accumulation and transfer system and
vocational qualifications.
Each institution determines the
number of hours of study required for each programme. In 2006, the
Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) commissioned a survey of first
and second year full time undergraduate students in English universities. The survey asked about the amount of
teaching received and private study undertaken. The report (HEPI, 2006)
set out the student workload by institution and by subject. It revealed
a wide variation in the amount of teaching timetabled in each subject,
with subjects such as medicine, dentistry, engineering and technology
providing more than twice the number of taught hours than either
languages or history.
Eurydice - the information network on education in Europe
Date: 2009
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