1.1 All new home programme proposals - including proposals for apprenticeship programmes where Oxford Brookes is the main provider - must be approved for further development through the New Programme Development Process. Through this process, a business case will be developed, in partnership with the Faculty Planning Partner (FPP), prior to sign-off by the Faculty Executive Group. The business case will then be assessed by a sub-group of the Recruitment & Admissions Group (RAG-NPG) – new programmes may not proceed to validation until RAG approval has been given.
1.2 For details of how to contact your FPP, and the stages and timescales involved in the process of developing a new programme proposal, please refer to New Programme Development.
1.3 Once the business case has been signed off by the Faculty Executive and approved by RAG-NPG, the PDT should be established, and the new programme will be added to the APQO and Faculty validation schedule. New programmes may, at this stage, be advertised as “subject to validation”. Programme teams will normally be expected to complete the validation process within six months from this point to support optimum recruitment for the first year of delivery.
1.4 At this stage, a preliminary meeting should be held between the:
- PDT Chair
- link QAO
- Faculty Quality Officer
- Associate Dean Education & Student Experience (ADESE) or Faculty Head of Quality Assurance & Validations (FHQAV)
to agree on a timescale for the completion of the validation process - with advice from the FPP - and set a date for the panel approval event. The Faculty’s OCAED link Educational Consultant should also be approached at this point to agree on an appropriate programme of engagement with the IDEAS model for the PDT.
1.5 Programme teams are not obliged to go through the RAG business case process for revalidations, but it may be useful to do so in order to ensure there is robust consideration of the market for a re-designed programme. Advice on whether this is required should be sought from the Faculty ADESE and the Faculty Planning Partner.
1.6 Short courses (sometimes referred to as CPD courses) lead to the award of up to 60 credits, at any level from level 4 to level 7, but do not lead to a formal qualification as defined in the University regulations (section 2). They are most commonly developed in response to a specific market or individual employer demand, but existing modules already approved within a Brookes programme may also be approved for marketing as individual short courses. Students should also be able to use credit from short/CPD courses towards a substantive award, which should preferably be specified at the time of approval. Initial development approval must be given by the Faculty Executive Group, as it is important that such provision is carefully costed in order to set appropriate tuition fees; and advice should be sought from the FPP on whether a proposed short course needs to be considered through the RAG process above. Students who complete a short course will be issued with a transcript showing the credit awarded; however, for collaborative arrangements, it may be considered appropriate to issue a certificate in conjunction with the transcript, and the Academic Registrar should be consulted on the appropriate format for such certificates.
Initial development approval must be given by the Faculty Executive Group, as it is important that such provision is carefully costed in order to set appropriate tuition fees; and advice should be sought from the FPP on whether a proposed short course needs to be considered through the RAG process above.