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  5. Programme Design

Programme Design

At Queen Mary, academic programmes are devised with the student at the centre. Our programmes are coherent, easy to navigate and support overall progression. Queen Mary Graduate Attributes are embedded in all our programmes, so that our students develop the knowledge, skills, adaptability, and resilience to succeed in an ever-changing job market and become active global citizens.

An image of the front of the Queens' Building at the Mile End campus

Principles of Academic Degree Programme Design

Discover our Programme Design Principles and find out more about the resources and support available.
Download the pdf

Taking a programme-level view

In line with our Strategy 2030, programmes at Queen Mary should be coherent, easy to navigate and support overall progression for students. For this reason, it is vital to take a programme-level view when designing or reviewing your curriculum.

When reviewing curricula at programme level, start from your programme level outcomes. Do they articulate what you want students to be able to do by the end of the programme? Are they set at an appropriate level for the level of the programme? Do they include academic content and disciplinary skills? What are the graduate attributes that students will develop on the programme?

Programme mapping

This guidance, together with our new programme mapping tool, has been designed to support you to develop programmes in line with the Queen Mary programme design principles.

Mapping your programme can be useful if you are: 

  • Reviewing or revising curricula
  • Reviewing or revising assessment design
  • Applying for external accreditation
  • Preparing for Enhanced Programme Review

When mapping your programme, we recommend the following steps:

Step one - Review your programme aims and intended learning outcomes

Step Two - Map your aims and intended learning outcomes across modules

When you are satisfied with the programme aims and learning outcomes then begin mapping them across the modules that make up the programme. You may find it useful to get the programme team together for this exercise. It can be done online (e.g. using the excel tool below) or on paper. 

  • Use the spreadsheet (or pen and paper!) to map out which modules enable students to meet each of the programme learning outcomes
  • You can also specify assessments and specific activities which meet the programme learning outcomes
  • For a more focused review of assessment design you may wish to also complete the detailed assessment mapping (see tab 3 in the Excel file)

Step 3 - Review and reflect

Once completed, review and discuss the mapping. Again, working together with colleagues on this can be useful. Here are some reflective questions to guide your review of the programme map, grouped into thematic areas. The questions are also included in the Queen Mary programme level mapping tool [DOC 86KB].

Reflective questions

Alignment of outcomes

  • Are all outcomes covered in the curriculum and where?
  • Are outcomes all being assessed?
  • Are any outcomes being over-assessed?
  • Are there outcomes that are being assessed but aren’t articulated? (e.g. skills?)

Assessment

  • Is there enough variety of assessment?
  • Do students get a chance to practise and act on feedback? (e.g. is there more than one instance of each assessment type in the programme?)
  • Are tasks scaffolded enough? (e.g. do they build on each other across the programme)
  • Is there too much assessment?
  • When and how are students encouraged to engage with learning outcomes and assessment criteria?
  • How is student assessment literacy and academic integrity developed progressively across the programme?
  • When do formative feedback opportunities take place and how do they support summative assessment?
  • What opportunities for tutor and peer feedback are there in each unit?
  • What other support is available to students?
  • Do all students benefit from the above?
  • Is assessment authentic and inclusive?
  • How is assessment spread? Are there bottlenecks?

Education methods

  • How do your teaching and learning methods align with the ACE curriculum framework? Are all areas of the framework represented?
  • Is there a variety of teaching and learning methods across the programme?
  • Do teaching and learning methods support students to achieve the programme outcomes?
  • Do teaching and learning methods prepare students for assessment?
  • Do teaching and learning methods support skills and attributes development?

Inclusivity

  • Do some groups of students attain better than others, and what may be the reason?
  • What barriers may affect students’ attainment? How can these be removed?
  • Are expectations and standards accessible to all students?
  • What variety and flexibility is embedded in the assessment design?
  • Is support available to those who need it most? (equity vs equality)
  • What place is there for co-creation?
  • Do students have a say in the ways they can demonstrate learning outcomes?
  • Are they able to explore their own interests, bring their whole self to assessment?

Graduate Attributes

  • Does the programme embed graduate attributes across all five Queen Mary values?
  • Does the programme embed graduate attributes related to sustainability and the UN SDGs?
  • Do the programme graduate attributes align with disciplinary / accreditor / regulator / employer requirements?
  • Do the programme graduate attributes incorporate student views of what skills and attributes they want to develop? Are they co-created with students?
  • How are graduate attributes identified to students?
  • Is there progression of development of attributes across the years of a programme?
  • How are students supported to reflect on and articulate their attributes?
  • How are graduate attributes linked with wider employability support throughout the programme?

Student voice and partnerships

  • What feedback do you already have from students about the programme and how does this help inform your review? (module evaluations, SSLC, NSS data etc)
  • What additional feedback or views from students do you need to seek to inform the review?
  • What other data do you already have available, e.g. attendance, attainment, engagement analytics?
  • Is there potential to work together with students to review and develop elements of the programme?

Download the programme mapping tool
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