adapting to disruptive times …III
Having heard at length about the nature of the challenges, and about the ways in which existing universities were conceptualising them, it was good to hear from a number of models involving private providers. These included Kaplan and Laureate, but the best presentation came from Roxanne Stockwell of Pearson.
Pearson is currently in a validation partnership with Royal Holloway, but is clear that its longer term aim is to seek degree awarding powers of its own. It is developing a suite of programmes by bringing together an academic lead, a student voice lead and an industry lead – saying that equal importance is accorded to each in designing its degrees. The focus is upon the interface between an academic degree and how it applies within the workplace.
Delivery is by blended learning: face-to-face locally through teaching centres, an online community, and through national annual industrial workshops and residential. The teaching centres offer a variety of ‘teaching ambiences’ (!!) - from Pearson’s own premises to use of conference and hired centres across the country. The local centres are networked together therefore students progress as a single cohort but in different locations. Similarly, tutors and lecturers are part of a national teaching community delivering a nationally designed curriculum – which is intended to help consistency of quality.
Teaching, learning and assessment is designed to reflect work practices – so an assessed report rather than essay, use of appraisal to monitor progress, incorporation of a project centred around a project in business, and a final viva which is more like an interview for promotion, which can draw upon all aspects of the content and skills learned during the programme.
Becase the programme is innovative in form, it doesn’t fit into existing categories of part-time and full-time. It would qualify as full-time study over four years, but is designed for students who are working in relevant occupations. A two-year version is available for students who are not working, with the use of higher contact time and workshops to meet the gap of workplace skills.
