Title: 4D Stage 1 Form Guidance
Document Type: Guidance
Location: Academic Handbook Section 4D
Version: 1.2
Publication date: January 2015
Author: Academic Services
Approved by: Dean, Academic Services
Last updated: January 2015
Review date: December 2015
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Academic Services January 2015 Guidance for completing the Course Proposal Stage 1 form
General
APC will make a judgement on whether the Course should be
approved at Stage 1 based on the information provided on this form.
Form is not completed fully may not be forwarded to APC.
If the course is approved then the information provided will be used
for publicising the course on UCAS and the University prospectus.
Sections marked by * indicates that the wording provided will be
used as a draft for material to publicise the course on UCAS and the
University Prospectus (online and hard copy).
Annex 1 should only be completed if required. If no sections in
Annex 1 are applicable then there is no need to insert the Annex as
part of the paperwork for APC.
Indicates information provided by Marketing and
Communications Services (MCS), Faculty Marketing Officers
Indicates information provided by the Faculty Indicates
information taken from the Trac(t) form Indicates
responsibility of the Planning Team in Finance
Section descriptions
No.
1
Title
Award type and
title
2
Marketing title
3
Modes of study
4
Provisional start
date
Description
The award type and title as it will appear on the award
certificate, e.g., BA (Hons) xxxx.
The award type must be an approved award contained in
the University’s list of ‘approved traditional awards’ in
the Academic Framework.
This is the title to be used for marketing purposes, should
include course variant information where relevant, e.g.
BA (Hons) Business Top Up/with placement/with
Foundation.
Full time, part time etc.
Must conform to the University requirements detailed in
the Academic Framework.
Date the course is proposed to start subject to approval.
If this is a re-validation then complete Annex 1 section 1,
outlining transitions arrangements.
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Course outline
6
Course Variants
7
Included within the
Faculty Plan
8
Estimated T&L and
Assessment
activities
9
Financial detail
Fees and rationale
for charging
different fees
Cost
Course deficit
A brief outline of the course, maximum of 1000 words,
which will be used for publicising the course on UCAS
[named programme summary] and/or University
prospectus to highlight to students the key subject areas,
Course USPs and details of any PSRB.
Details of options available for that course, i.e. Work
placements, Foundation year, pathways.
The proposed course should align to the Faculty plan and
if it does not then a justification for the proposal should
be provided in Annex 1 (Section 1).
This information is only required for Undergraduate
courses for KIS purposes. It is understood that this will be
an estimate at this stage. Here you should provide an
estimate of the proportion of your teaching that will be
‘scheduled’, ‘placement’, and ‘independent’. As well as
an estimate of the assessment activity types ‘written’,
‘practical’ and ‘coursework’. All other KIS data can be
extracted from the information provided within this form.
The following data should be transposed directly from the
Trac(t) form and Faculty Course Costing Template(s): Staff
Student Ratio, Development and set up costs, on- going
costs, fees, direct costs, development costs, capital
requirement costs, revenues and surplus/deficits/Student
numbers on course.
Please liaise with your Faculty Finance Officer when
completing the Trac(t) and Course Costing Template(s),
the Faculty Finance Officer will need to sign off the final
version. These forms need to be included in the proposal
documentation that is sent to Planning for APC, but are
not routinely presented.
In most instances the fees charged will be in line with the
University’s standard fees. If this is not the case then the
rationale for this should be provided in Annex 1 (Section
2).
Where additional resources, e.g., people, equipment,
space, for development or capital requirements costs are
required, especially after initial set up then these should
be detailed in Annex 1 (Section 3).
If the course continues to show a deficit by the end of
Year 3, details should be provided in Annex 1 (Section 4)
explaining what added value the course brings to the
University.
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Marketing
This section is supported by MCS, in the devising of the
course USPs. Assistance with accessing and using this
data can be provided by the Faculty Marketing Officers
(FMOs) based in MCS. Gathering of this information can
take several weeks, so it is recommended that requests
for data are completed in a timely manner.
The Marketing Director must sign the form to indicate
support of the proposal.
A maximum of three USPs should be provided which takes
into account offerings of key competitors, local feeder
institutions, requirements of employers and student
demands.
Your Faculty Marketing Officers and the central Marketing
team should be consulted (in good time) to help in
identifying the course USPs.
This compares the proposed course entry requirements
with those of comparable courses at competitor
institutions, enabling analysis of the data and
benchmarking against sector practice to be completed.
The entry requirements of competitors need to be
succinct and only list requirements.
This data will show the percentage of ‘acceptances’ onto
courses in the subject area by JACs code and whether it
increased or decreased over the last year. This will
indicate the ‘popularity’ of the subject area.
The NSS/PTES/DLHE data for these sections can be
accessed via the FMOs in MCS. However, the analysis is
usually written by the course team. Where this section
shows negative information explanation should be
provided in Annex 1 (Section 5)
The National Student Survey (NSS) is an annual survey
which gives final year HE students the chance to
feedback about their student learning experience at the
institution. This is specific to Undergraduate courses.
Course Key USPs
Entry requirements
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Subject trends in
acceptances in
subject area (JACs
code)
Student
experience
NSS/PTES analysis
Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) gives PG
taught students the opportunity to feedback on the
learning and teaching and all other aspects of their
course. This is specific to Post Graduate courses.
The information gathered from either of these sources
can be used to analyse sector/university trends relating
to students overall satisfaction rates in comparable
courses/subjects. SSU data should be used if there are
comparable courses/areas of study, if not then sector
comparisons should be used.
If there is no comparative data then a short written
summary outlining how the course will ensure a positive
student experience should be inserted. For example:
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analysis
The Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE)
survey asks those who have recently completed higher
education courses about their current activity, which may
be working, studying, looking for work or even travelling.
This is specific to Undergraduate courses.
Post- meeti
ng
Actio
n
point
s post
APC
For Post Graduate courses any internal data collected
around this area or employability opportunities should be
used.
The information gathered from either of these sources
can be used to assess the success of graduates from
comparable courses in securing employment or further
studies. SSU data should be used if there are comparable
courses/areas of study, if not then sector comparisons
should be used.
If there is no comparative data then a short written
summary outlining how the course will embed
employability should be inserted. For example,
This data will be completed by the Clerk to APC if the
proposal is approved and will be included in the
circulation of the form and decision post APC. This will
enable the course to be marketed from that point.
Approval/non approval will be communicated to the
Faculty via the Planning section of Finance.
Decision outcome
from APC
If approved:
The Planning section of Finance will:
Update post stage 1 approval details and circulate the
New Course Proposal Stage 1 Form within 5 working days
to:
 The faculty;
 Academic Services Admissions; and
 MCS;
Academic Services will:
Upload the course details onto the UCAS site and inform
faculty of the UCAS code and the Student Loan Company of
the new course/variant.
MCS will:
Will agree final wording with the faculty to place the
preliminary details on the University’s web site and
incorporate the course title into publicity material. MSC
will disseminate the SSU URL for the course to the Faculty
Marketing Officer.
Directors/Heads of Schools will:
Set up a course development team and nominate a team
leader
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