Guidelines for Completing Programme Specifications
Intended Learning Outcomes
There is a need to ensure that these are expressed at Masters level as well as being assessable.
There should be an emphasis on critical knowledge and understanding; in other words, an ability to
critically discuss or evaluate and also to inform this by developments at the forefront of the subject
area - thus, an evidenced based approach. Demonstrate, determine, illustrate and identify are not
masters level and would be better expressed as critically discuss, or critically evaluate, and some ref
to using the latest evidence would also be useful. Think about what the student is actually going to do
to ‘demonstrate’ their acquired knowledge understanding and skills’
Examples from successfully approved programmes are given below. Please also consult the University
Guidelines
http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_105307_en.pdf
Intellectual skills
On completion of the programme, students will be able to:
Identify relevant literature;
Synthesise and evaluate critically theories and empirical findings;
Apply their learning to analyse a variety of problems related to [topic of programme] and
communicate this in writing;
Formulate a focused, research-worthy, and feasible personal research topic and research
plan;
Apply appropriate research methods;
Write an extended piece of research work;
Identify, conceptualise and define problems and issues at the forefront of [the programme
topic];
Apply critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis to a range of issues which are at the
forefront of [programme topic] and develop original and creative responses to these.
Critically review, consolidate and extend knowledge skills and practice in particular
subject areas of [programme topic] using relevant theories and empirical findings.
Evaluate critically the methods used in others' research work;
Evaluate critically various types of source materials and primary data emanating from
[programme topic]
Be aware of the particular ethical considerations and concerns which may apply to the
conduct of research in the [programme topic area];
Demonstrate an appreciation of the diversity of approaches to the conduct of research in
the area.
Transferable/key skills
On completion of the programme, students will be able to:
Communicate clearly and appropriately both in writing and orally, in particular through
active participation in seminars with peers.
Participate in discussions and be adept at presenting a coherent and well-grounded
argument in a small group environment;
Assessment methods
Assessment should be directly linked to ILOs.
Summative assessment of knowledge and understanding, and research skills, takes place
primarily through essays/projects and the dissertation.
The essays/projects and dissertation assess the use of a wide range of relevant literature and
data, the ability to summarise this material effectively and the ability to construct and defend a
coherent argument.
Formative assessment.
Methods of formative assessment of the knowledge and skills listed in the ILOs include
seminar presentations; formative assessments are used on [X] courses. Different courses use
different forms, from seminar presentations to written work such as written article summaries,
to provide methods of formative assessment of the knowledge and skills listed in section 10
above.
Programme structure and features
The layout below has been well received
The MSc/MRes programme consists of 180 credits based on 6 courses (20 credits each)
and a dissertation (60 credits). The award of the Postgraduate Diploma (Research) marks
an early exit point for MSc/MRes students who do not reach the required standard for
progression to the dissertation. It consists of 120 credits based on 6 courses (20 credits
each). All optional courses are expected to run every year. However, occasionally, not all
optional courses may be available.
Full time programme structure
Component
Course Name
Time
Credits
Core Course
Include course
code
Semester 1
20 credits
1 or 2 optional courses
from the list of those
available
Semester 1
20 credits each
Core Course
Semester 2
20 credits
2 or 1 optional courses
from the list of those
available
Semester 2
20 credits each
Core course
Semester 1
20 credits
Dissertation
Part
time
structure
Dissertation
[programme
topic]
on
Summer
60 credits
programme
Students have to ensure that they take all four core courses when these are offered
and have flexibility to take optional courses across the two years. The programme
director recommends that the following core courses are taken first XXXX and YYYY;
the other two are less sequential.
Additional information
All that is needed here is the following:
Support for students is provided by the Postgraduate/Undergraduate Adviser(s) of
Studies supported by University resources such as the Effective Learning Adviser
located in the Student Learning Service (http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/tls/sls/); the
Student Counselling and Advisory Service
(http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/counselling/);
the Student Disability Service (http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/studentdisability/);
and the Careers Service (http://www.gla.ac.uk/services/careers/).