Roger,
placement/year-abroad years:
guidance needed on how to present realistic placement year dates on the database.
last year was a disaster for many of us (even after taking SLC advice)
foundation year/level 0
if the software problems have been addressed at the LEA end of the equation, we need early and clear guidance on how to present the full programme in the database.
ie - is the first year to be shown as "0" or "1" - or can either be chosen in order to better fit with the HEI's internal records systems.
mini-combined or modular programmes
many HEIs must run a number of courses within departments or faculties which have only two or three modules difference which define the actual award title.
eg BSc(Hons) Chemistry with Environmental Studies
BSc(Hons) Chemistry and Environmental Management
BSc(Hons) Chemistry
many students enrol through one course's UCAS code, then subsequently chop and change their course enrolment depending upon module selection.
not only does this cause confusion to LEAs (who often argue that they cannot allow more than one change); but also causes all parties additional workload and can delay student award assessments.
surely it would be preferable to have an umbrella code for such courses (perhaps FXXX in the above example).
HEIs would probably prefer to keep individual course codes in the UCAS Handbook, for marketing and other reasons.
However, when making offers to students, it should not prove difficult to provide students with instruction on how to inform their LEAs of the relevant SLC Course code and name.
There are more little niggles which I should remember but cannot (because it's not that time of year !), but hopefully other replies may cover these.
should you have any queries re any of these items, please contact me.
thanks
Tony Silvester
Admin Co-ordinator
Non-academic Student Administration
University of Derby
tel + 44 (0) 1332 591879
>>> [log in to unmask] 11/06/00 09:21am >>>
I have been asked to go to a meeting on Thursday at the DfEE to discuss
possible improvements
to the collection and input of course data by HEIs into the HEI Database of
courses and term dates.
Would anyone who has any views or suggestions please let me have them by
lunchtime on Wednesday.
As far as I can see, the process went much more smoothly in winter 1999/2000
than it did the year before. I hope we can be allowed more lead time. I
will go through the instructions again to see where they can be improved;
but I am rather too close to the design of the process (ie I think I
understand it) so I am not as critical of the instructions as I would be if
I simply received them cold.
I am also pursing (on a more extended agenda) the issue of whether it
actually matters if a student is doing say French, or French with German.
But any resolution of this will probably not effect the collection of course
and term date details, because LEAs will need to know these to calculate how
much a student is to be lent.
Roger Clark
Academic Registrar
University of Reading
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