Proposal: the Final Year of the Single Honours Degree Should Remain As It Is

Proposal 1: The final year of the Single Honours degree should remain as it is.

Alternatives considered:

Alternative

Have some short length optional modules (e.g. 7.5 CATS), as recommended by one external examiner (JE).

Response

No objection in principle, but there would need to be a critical mass of short options available. It appears that some modules could be split relatively easy, but there is so far no obvious demand, and the administrative overhead of some models might be considerable.

Alternative

Reduce the number of options taken from 6 to 4, as recommended by one external examiner (JE). Replace these with, for instance, a General Paper.

Response

[Not yet discussed?]

Proposal 2: It had already been agreed (Staff Meeting, October 2005) that PS109 should be disaggregated into two 15 CATs modules from 2006-7. Otherwise, Methods and Project teaching in years 1, 2, and 3 should remain as it is.

Proposal 3: First year students should continue to take an outside option (or options) amounting to 30 CATS.

The principal changes to the programme that are envisaged, therefore, relate to the teaching and assessment of substantive areas of psychology in the first and second year.

Proposal 4: All three years of the degree should be weighted in degree classification (10:30:60).

Considerations:

The main reason for this is to get the first year to count for BPS accreditation purposes. The committee is conscious of counterarguments. The first year currently works effectively to induct students from a variety of backgrounds (e.g. with/without A-level psychology). For this reason, a relatively low weight for the first year has been proposed. It was felt important to not reduce the weight given to the final year. An issue is that all first year work (exams and coursework) will need to be moderated in line with University procedures.

Proposal 5: Each area covered should be taught once (15 CATS), in either the first or second year.

Considerations:

The aim is to avoid repetition or overlap in teaching. Currently, a typical core area has 22.5 CATS (7.5 in year 1, 15 in year 2). It is important for teachers to consider whether the relevant material can be covered adequately within 15 CATS.

Proposal 6: The committee does not recommend having a separate "Assessed work" module in either the first or second year. Instead, the corresponding coursework should be distributed so that each substantive module should contain a modest coursework element (20% of module weight).

Considerations:

A separate "Assessed work" module would involve considerable and continuing management. It could become unbalanced, either in terms of the topics covered or the distribution of workload. It would be better to allocate the same coursework to specific modules. This would automatially balance the distribution of workload, and would ensure that student progress was monitored and that students received feedback on their progress on each module. At present, each broad area typically sets two essays (one each in the first and second year). Under this proposal, that would reduce to one piece of coursework.

Proposal 7: The design of coursework should be left, in the first instance, to module teachers. Staff should be reminded that it is not necessary to use an essay as coursework. Coursework should be designed to be appropriate to the learning objectives of a given module, and to prevent cheating. This could include class tests.

Proposal 8: However, the degree should include essay writing (at least around two essays in each of the first and second years). We anticipate that a number of module convenors will continue to use essays. The Examinations Committee should monitor this, and the overall balance and range of coursework. The Teaching Quality Committee will initially check this for new module proposals, and asks convenors drafting proposals to specify the form of coursework.

Proposal 9: The list of core modules for the first and second year should be (each 15 CATS)

Year 1

Statistics E3, open book (100)

Practicals A(100)

Historical and conceptual issues E2(80)/A(20)

Psychobiology E2(80)/A(20)

Social psychology E2(80)/A(20)

Memory E2(80)/A(20)

Year 2

Methods 2 A(100)

Second year project A(100)

Perception, planning & action E2(80)/A(20)

Language & thought E2(80)/A(20)

Individual differences E2(80)/A(20)

Developmental psychology E2(80)/A(20)

Abnormal psychology E2(80)/A(20)

Cognitive neuropsychology E2(80)/A(20)

Considerations:

This scheme covers the core areas of the BPS qualifying exam, necessary for BPS accreditation of the degree (psychobiology, social, cognitive, individual differences, and developmental). We do have to check that the BPS will accept first year teaching as being "at honours level" when it counts towards degree classification.

There was a proposal to include a "Professional Issues" module. Committee did not feel this should contribute to degree classification. Material from Personal Development Planning and careers information has recently been upgraded but may not have uniform relevance to all students. What might supplement this is covered by the Warwick Skills Certificate, which has a CATS weight but does not contribute to classification.

We considered the possibility of having two second year modules (Abnormal and Cognitive neuropsychology) as third year options instead, and allowing second year students to take an outside option in their place. This would further reduce staff load, would improve the range of final year options, and increase the ability of students to study more broadly (issues raised in the Satisfaction Survey). However, there was concern that this may cost the department resources.

Some of these modules would be based on 22.5 CATS of existing material. Some others would require new material to be developed (Historical and conceptual issues, Memory, Cognitive neuropsychology).

During the first year of the new programme (2007-8), some teachers may be teaching both a second year module from the existing course and the first year module from the new programme. Thus instead of teaching 22.5 CATS, as at present, in these areas 30 CATS would have to be delivered for one year only. The following year, it would drop to 15 CATS (so an average of 22.5 CATS per year over the period 2006-2009). The areas affected would be Psychobiology and Social psychology.