Pathways within programmes
Creation of formal, named pathway awards (major amendment)
A pathway is a formally approved, structured route through a programme, enabling specialisation within the overall aims and learning outcomes of that programme, and should be identified as BA/BSc/MA/MSc in programme title (pathway title).
The programme should have some generic aims and outcomes which apply to all pathways, but in addition, there should normally be some recognition of any aims or outcomes that are specific to a pathway. This could be through recognition of variations in the generic aims and outcomes or through explicit additional aims and outcomes.
There should be some commonality across pathways within a programme through either one or a number of common subject-based course units. The pathway content should normally constitute at least one-third of the programme credits and should include the dissertation/project element, if appropriate. This can involve course units that are compulsory for the pathway but available as options for students taking other pathways or programmes.
For a Postgraduate Taught (PGT) programme, the distinct pathway requirements should be reflected in the 60 credit dissertation and at least one 15 credit taught unit.
- For example, the MA International Development is a stand-alone programme but it has a number of pathways, such as MA International Development: Development Management, which appears separately from MA International Development on the online course listings.
- Applicants must apply to and register to an individual pathway. Student records are thus separated by pathway and reported on separately in terms of admissions and registrations
- The pathway is recognised on the student’s degree certificate.
Informal pathways, specialisms or routes through a programme (major amendment)
Schools may wish to introduce a programme specialism for promotional purposes only, to highlight the potential routes through a programme. Students will register, and receive on their award, the generic programme title, e.g. MA Creative Writing. In this example, students pursue either a fiction or a poetry specialism, but:
- there is a single online course listing – MA Creative Writing
- all applicants apply to and register to a single Plan Code – MA Creative Writing. Therefore all applicants and entrants are reported together, regardless of whether they are following the fiction or the poetry specialism.
- all students graduate with an MA in Creative Writing
Suite of programmes
The operation of pathways within a single programme is different from a suite of related programmes with separate titles that share the same pool of course units and that are managed by the same programme committee.
A suite of programmes could have a substantial number of course units in common, though there may also be some which are specific to a subset of the programmes and there may also be variation as to which course units are obligatory and which are optional between the programmes.
The different programmes will have their own learning outcomes and programme specifications and there should be sufficient differentiation between the programmes to account for the difference in learning outcomes and to ensure that the same combination of course units (and dissertation) cannot lead to different qualifications.
Approval of pathways
If a proposed pathway is part of an entirely new programme, then you should follow the procedures and documentation for a new programme proposal.
If you are adding a pathway to an existing programme, then you need to follow the procedures and documentation for an amendment to a programme.