{"id":186,"date":"2017-11-09T20:51:47","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T20:51:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=186"},"modified":"2017-11-22T11:42:22","modified_gmt":"2017-11-22T11:42:22","slug":"special-report-end-of-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/09\/special-report-end-of-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"SPECIAL REPORT: END OF PART ONE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are the days of Part I at Lancaster as we know it numbered? The paper ‘A proposal for radical improvement’, drafted in July 2017 by the Dean for Academic Quality and recently seen by subtext, would have required very rapid change to be implemented in time for an October 2019 start. The response from many departmental heads of teaching was not positive – ‘it can’t be done!’ said one – and the whole matter has gone out to a working group.<\/span><\/p>\n

The basic idea is easy to state. In place of three Part I subject options (which in faculties other than FASS usually means two subjects in your major and one in your minor), the student would study:<\/span><\/p>\n

– Only major courses in the first ‘core’ term; then<\/span><\/p>\n

– A mix of major and minor courses (usually one-third major for a single honours student) in the second ‘exploratory’ term; then<\/span><\/p>\n

– Back to your major subject for the third ‘bridging’ term.<\/span><\/p>\n

Final assessment of courses would take place at the start of the following term, so there would be no end-of-year examinations, except for the third term’s courses which would be assessed by coursework. The emphasis moves towards the programme, and away from the department or the module. This approach to assessment, moving away from the end-of-year exam as main arbiter of success, shows the influence of recent educational research and the team in OED.<\/span><\/p>\n

So could it work? In terms of content, staffing and timetabling, the main change would see first years studying just their major in the first term, in order to help them ‘become inducted and assimilated into their academic disciplines at an early stage, as well as beginning to learn some of the most important material for their degrees’ and ‘speed up progress towards a feeling of belonging to students’ academic disciplines, programmes and departments.’ This frontloading of core content is contentious. For many of our programmes, the deep learning occurs in the second term, after everyone is hopefully settled in, but this approach may no longer be feasible under the new proposals. Some departments have suggested that professional accreditation would not be possible under the new system.<\/span><\/p>\n

The description of second term options envisages an ‘anything goes’ mix. There might be non-standard options in a student’s own discipline, alongside courses designed to broaden the horizons (Physics’ former Part I in ‘The Universe as an Art’ is mentioned approvingly) and double-weighted ‘switching modules’, designed specifically to enable those thinking of ‘switching’ to move into that subject more or less straight away, so their third term courses could be in their new subject.<\/span><\/p>\n

For departments that currently offer minor-only Part I courses, this might not be too great an increase in workload, but for departments that currently mix major and minor students together, it could represent a significant hike . . . unless of course your current major class is so big that you’re on the verge of double teaching anyway, in which case, so the thinking goes, why not offer two slightly different streams?<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s not entirely clear how combined honours degree schemes – which can currently be run efficiently with relatively small numbers due to the sharing of modules with single honours students – would fit into the new model, especially during the core term. Natural Sciences gets mentioned, as a consortial scheme for which ‘programme teams have little flexibility and find their students’ requirements can be subservient to those of departments,’ but there’s no mention of how Natural Sciences could fit into the new Part I structure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Methods of assessment and concerns over timetabling aside, the end result might turn out to be, well, not entirely dissimilar to the educational experience at several other universities. A traditional course at a redbrick might include 75% of compulsory courses in the first year, alongside a variety of options, including for most students the opportunity to study courses in other departments. Lancaster’s approach to the first year, by contrast, is now rare in England and Wales. Scotland has always done things differently of course.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you look beyond the thoughtful proposals on teaching styles and assessment methods, these ‘radical’ proposals for our Part I start to look rather like what everyone else is doing. Maybe the truly radical option would be to keep Part I largely as it is?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are the days of Part I at Lancaster as we know it numbered? The paper ‘A proposal for radical improvement’, drafted in July 2017 by the Dean for Academic Quality and recently seen by subtext, would have required very rapid … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[117,119,115,114,116,118],"class_list":["post-186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-special-feature","tag-assessment","tag-issue-168","tag-minor-students","tag-part-i","tag-teaching-methods","tag-timetabling"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-30","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":184,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/09\/end-of-part-one-part-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":186,"position":0},"title":"END OF PART ONE PART TWO","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 9 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"As well as the implications for departmental workloads, these proposals also carry major financial implications that seemingly haven't figured in any of the plans. Departments or degree schemes with small student numbers are very dependent on the revenue that Part I minor students provide. DeLC and Sociology, for example, might\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":684,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/06\/21\/a-minor-problem\/","url_meta":{"origin":186,"position":1},"title":"A MINOR PROBLEM","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"June 21 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"In subtext 168, we reported on 'A proposal for radical improvement', drafted by the Dean for Academic Quality. The subtext collective postulated at the time that the implementation of those proposals could have meant the end of Part One at Lancaster. News reaches subtext of another proposal \u2013 well, an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":301,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/01\/18\/ua92-updates\/","url_meta":{"origin":186,"position":2},"title":"UA92 UPDATES","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"January 18 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"UA\u2019INT SEEN NUTHIN\u2019 YET Local opposition in Manchester to plans for UA92 continues to grow. Stretford residents are increasingly sceptical of the claims from Trafford Council that the scheme will be the major driver for the regeneration of their area. Detailed information from the Council on exactly how the local\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/10\/26\/the-third-red-scare\/","url_meta":{"origin":186,"position":3},"title":"THE THIRD RED SCARE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"October 26 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Regular readers of one of subtext\u2019s minor competitors, The Guardian, may have come across an article early on Tuesday morning about a letter sent by Tory whip Chris Heaton-Harris to University Vice-Chancellors demanding to know who was teaching students about Brexit, and what the content of their courses was as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":777,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/10\/11\/good-evening-everyone\/","url_meta":{"origin":186,"position":4},"title":"GOOD EVENING, EVERYONE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"October 11 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"It's happened. From this week, the teaching day lasts from 9am to 7pm. And it's likely to stay that way. Despite the Deputy Vice-Chancellor's acceptance that the sudden announcement of an extension from 6pm to 7pm (via a staff intranet post in the last week of July) was 'less than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":717,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/09\/13\/watch-this-space-part-i-study\/","url_meta":{"origin":186,"position":5},"title":"WATCH THIS SPACE: PART I STUDY","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"September 13 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Part I study was a brief feature at the start and end of subtext's academic year. In issue 168, we reported on a serious proposal to drastically limit the amount of time that students spend on minor subjects, which would impact greatly on departmental budgets and workloads. 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