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