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KatyO83 · 36-40, F
Having worked in Higher Education for the last 12 years I'd say there's many factors for this.
In no particular order here are my top three reasons why courses are now my prescriptively structured.
Government funding - you want to get funding to run courses the government essentially dictate what courses you run. You can put on Engineering, or gaming design, etc. they'll fall over themselves to help but The Societal Structure of Ancient Civilisations - try getting money for that.
Employability and accreditation - let us take Psychology as an example. A useful gateway course to many careers, in clinic or say education or in corporate use (HR - etc). But there's no point running a BSc course in the UK if it ain't accredited by the British Psychological Society. No BPS stamp and people won't enrol, but to be BPS accredited essentially your BSc is the same anywhere in the UK.
Student fees - since fees were introduced along with the loans system (in the UK) the student has become much more powerful consumer of services. No long can universities have crap lecture materials, a loose non existent curriculum etc. Students are paying over £25,000 for a standard Batchelors degree over £30,000 for an undergrad masters. They demand a known result. Universities are battling with each other to get students to enrol and we constantly are telling academics what they consider to be a good offering in a competitive market is just rubbish. That forces you to be more prescriptive too so the CMA aren't on your case for false advertising.
In no particular order here are my top three reasons why courses are now my prescriptively structured.
Government funding - you want to get funding to run courses the government essentially dictate what courses you run. You can put on Engineering, or gaming design, etc. they'll fall over themselves to help but The Societal Structure of Ancient Civilisations - try getting money for that.
Employability and accreditation - let us take Psychology as an example. A useful gateway course to many careers, in clinic or say education or in corporate use (HR - etc). But there's no point running a BSc course in the UK if it ain't accredited by the British Psychological Society. No BPS stamp and people won't enrol, but to be BPS accredited essentially your BSc is the same anywhere in the UK.
Student fees - since fees were introduced along with the loans system (in the UK) the student has become much more powerful consumer of services. No long can universities have crap lecture materials, a loose non existent curriculum etc. Students are paying over £25,000 for a standard Batchelors degree over £30,000 for an undergrad masters. They demand a known result. Universities are battling with each other to get students to enrol and we constantly are telling academics what they consider to be a good offering in a competitive market is just rubbish. That forces you to be more prescriptive too so the CMA aren't on your case for false advertising.