Creating programme specifications for different audiences
| Pages | 180-189 |
| Date | 01 December 2000 |
| Published date | 01 December 2000 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09684880010356075 |
| Author | Margaret Harrison |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Creating programme
specifications for
different audiences
Margaret Harrison
Introduction
The Report of the National Committee of
Inquiry into Higher Education (National
Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education,
1997), also known as the Dearing Report,
stressed ``the importance of clear and explicit
information for students so that they can
make informed choices about their studies
and the levels they are aiming to achieve''.
Thus to help students select a place and
programme of study, the Report
recommended ``that clear descriptions of
programmes should be developed so that
students are able to compare different
offerings and make sensible choices about the
programmes they wish to take''. It is clear
from this emphasis that the committee saw
the primary function of the programme
specification (PS) as a source of information
for students. But the PS has the potential to
provide information to a range of audiences
(Quality Assurance Agency, 2000a; Jackson,
2000). Consultations with students,
employers and other stakeholders as part of
the process of developing policy have revealed
that they would value such information if it
could be presented in forms that are
appropriate to the needs of each audience.
QAA policy anticipates that PS will be
embedded in institutional quality assurance
processes in order to ensure that the
information they contain is accurate and
reliable. Therefore, the concept of PS has
evolved both to fulfil a quality assurance
function and to provide information to a
range of potential audiences including
academics, students, employers and
professional and statutory regulatory bodies
(Quality Assurance Agency, 2000a, b;
Jackson, 2000; Shaw, 2000; Pittilo et al.,
2000). In broadening the function of the PS
the key developmental issue has been how to
provide information that is meaningful and
useful to different audiences. This article
describes the process and products of creating
a range of programme specifications to meet
the information needs of four different
audiences:
(1) potential students who are seeking
information about a course;
(2) students who are already studying on a
course;
The author
Margaret Harrison is a Principal Lecturer at Cheltenham
and Gloucester College of Higher Education and course
leader for degree courses in Environmental Management,
Geography, Human Geography and Physical Geography.
Keywords
Curriculum, Specifications, Information, Academic staff,
Students, Employers
Abstract
This article takes as its starting point the notion that
information has to be customised for different user groups
and shows how different types of programme
specification might be created for different audiences. It
describes three types of programme specification: a
template version written for an academic audience; free
format version written for a student audience; and a
summary statement written for an employer audience. It
also examines the potential for linking programme
specification details to online course admission profiles. It
concludes that programme specification has the potential
to be a valuable aid to communication between
academics, students and employers.
Electronic access
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is
available at
http://www.emerald-library.com
The views expressed in this article are those of the
author and should not be seen as a policy statement
from C&GCHE.
180
Quality Assurance in Education
Volume 8 .Number 4 .2000 .pp. 180±189
#MCB University Press .ISSN 0968-4883
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