Challenging Custom and Practice in Course Design

Traditionally course design in higher education in the U.K. had been shaped mainly by intellectual pursuits and the research agenda. Since the Dearing Report (Dearing, 1997), it has been driven mostly by quality assurance processes, either leaving out other necessary processes or not being concerned to integrate them. Typically, the quality processes driving the design of new courses are the "programme specification" incorporating a set of “module specifications”. These are supposed to ensure a focus on the student clients that potentially or actually are seen as having putative learning needs. Learning programmes are expected to address those needs, and these key documents are intended to express this, aiming primarily to provide public information and organizational accountability.