Programme Management Plans
Why Have Programme Management Plans?
Consultation with Programme Leaders and Heads of Department has indicated that successful programmes have a very clear sense of the principles and priorities which underpin programme activity. This can take time to plan … so this series of programme management plans has been devised to help new programme leaders, or existing programme leaders wanting to review their current practice.
The plans cover key aspects of programme management within the overall context of the Education Strategy and the Principles for Learning, Teaching and Assessment and link to relevant institutional codes of practice and procedures.
Having clear principles for action should make it easier to plan and review the work of the programme team, deal with unforeseen circumstances, and identify what actions may be determined by programmes or by procedures instituted at faculty or departmental level.
The plans give programme teams a clear agenda for discussion and delegation of tasks, a structure for evaluation using data from different sources, and a context for the Course Improvement Plan.
Isn’t this yet more bureaucracy?
Course management plans are not a requirement. The templates indicate what issues programme teams might like to consider, and provide a rough meeting agenda through an academic cycle.
Where institutional procedures exist (e.g. for assessment management or personal tutoring), completion of the plan will be sufficient to demonstrate that the programme is fully compliant with those procedures.
The plans do not need to be lengthy. We suggest that they are developed by the whole programme team, or by agreed sub-groups. They can be shared with HoDs or Faculty Heads of Education, to help them to make faculty plans for organisation and staff development, workload planning and delegation of responsibilities, and with Faculty teams to support detailed administrative planning. They should also be helpful to support the induction of new staff.
Programme Management Plans
Assessment
Programme Leaders need to have an overview of what is happening with assessment on the programme. We recommend the production of an assessment management plan which is updated annually following assessment boards.
Personal Tutoring
Learning and Teaching Principle 4 sets out the context and principles for this. It is expected that programme teams will decide what will work best in their context and this can be recorded in a personal tutoring management plan. The programme leader needs to ensure that everyone knows about the scheme and review it at least annually.
Technology Enhanced Learning
A Technology-enhanced learning plan sets out the purpose and value of technology in relation to the programme and its role in preparing students for assessment and future employment. It will help to identify staff development and support needs as well as providing information for programme review.
Induction
The induction plan covers the purpose of pre-entry, induction and transition activities in the context of the programme and how the activities will be evaluated and allocates roles and responsibilities for implementation.
Management plan contact
Management plan CONTACT
If you have further questions about management plans, please contact Orlagh McCabe. Click on Orlagh’s profile card for more details.