Curriculum Advising and Programme Planning

(CAPP)

Sarah Sanders, Senior Academic Quality Manager (School of Humanities and School of Performing and Digital Arts)

Debby Salsbury, Academic Quality Officer

March 2020

CAPP system represents the College's definitive record of curriculum data across its academic departments

It details mandatory module (course) requirements, condonability, any rules and available options for each degree path, including a separate record for those offering variants such as a Year in Industry

It is located within Banner, part of the central student record system

Individual Department Reports can be downloaded via Infoview (See later slide for details on how to do this)

What is CAPP? Where is it found?

The Academic Quality and Policy Office (AQPO) is responsible for the set-up of new courses (programmes) and ongoing maintenance each year of existing courses (programmes)

Information to update CAPP comes via the validation process

Departments are responsible for confirming the accuracy of their CAPP data

Departments/School Admin Teams are also responsible for implementing the validation changes (eg assessment updates in SHAGCOM, Moodle etc)

Who is responsible for CAPP?

CAPP forms the basis of various important College operational processes including:

Timetabling - to ensure correct scheduling of mandatory modules (courses) so as to avoid clashes for eg joint degrees

Mandatory registration scripts - to ensure students are registered on the correct mandatory module(s) (courses) for their chosen degree pathway

Please note, various students are excluded from the mandatory registration script including; non-progressing students; visiting students; part-time UG students; and students on courses (programmes) that are not currently CAPP compliant, eg Liberal Arts.

Mark Management system (Oncilla) – to ensure the condonability is accurate for progression/classification

Why is CAPP so important?

College has a legal responsibility to advertise accurate course (programme) structures and module (course) information (essentially mandatory modules (courses)) in the form of a Course (Programme) Specification.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) promotes competition within the market (our market is Higher Education)

Prospective students receive information at the offer stage (Course (Programme) Specifications) which forms a contract

Course (Programme) Specs are therefore the definitive version and should match CAPP!

Could lead to complaints/litigation if information is inaccurate or significant changes are made without adequate notice

Combined Course (Programme) Specifications and CMAs for UG and separate documents for PGT for 2020/21 are held in the Degree Programme Library

https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/degree-programme-library/

CAPP – legal responsibilities

Degree Programme Library

BA Film Studies with Philosophy example

CAPP uses the following terminology:

Programme = the degree course (programme) being offered

Areas = the stages within the course (programme) ie Year 1, 2, 3 etc.

note: a different colour is used for each stage in the report

Groups = these are a selection or ‘basket’ of mandatory or optional modules (courses)

note: each area must have at least one group

note: a Joint Honours degree will have more than one group

Rules = are located within groups and determine the number of credits to be taken from a basket of options

CAPP terminology

CAPP terminology example

Programme

Area

Group

CAPP - credits

The total number of credits required for each stage of an undergraduate degree will normally be 120:

Single Hons Joint Hons Major/Minor

Group Groups Groups

120 credits 60 credits 60 credits 90 credits 30 credits

or

60 credits 60 credits

CAPP joint honours example

Criminology Group

Psychology Group

CAPP rules

Rules determine the structure of the degree and a student’s choice where appropriate.

The rules of a group will normally relate to optional modules (courses)

A student is required to choose a specific number of credits from a basket of options

The number of optional credits will be determined by:

120 credits for the UG academic year/stage minus any mandatory module (course) credits

180 credits for the PGT academic year minus any mandatory module (course) credits

CAPP rules example

Rule

Rule

CAPP rules example

Rule

CAPP module (course) status

Modules (Courses) are classified as follows:

MNC Mandatory/Non-Condonable

students must pass, be allowed or from which they must be granted exemption in order to progress onto the next stage or to qualify for a specific field of study;

MC Mandatory/Condonable

students must take but do not have to pass in order to progress onto the next stage or to qualify for a specific field of study.

R Research Project/Dissertation

OC Optional/Condonable

Fail outcomes in these courses can normally be condoned unless a Pass outcome is required to qualify for a specific field of study.

It is essential that this information is recorded correctly as it is used by the Mark Management System for progression and classification.

CAPP rules - condonability

In addition to the module (course) status, a level of condonability will be shown:

UG – Pass mark is 40%

30-39% shown as eg Optional/Condonable (30)

PGT – Pass mark is 50%

40-49% shown as eg Mandatory/Condonable (40)

Note:

The level of condonability may vary for some courses (programmes) eg UG Engineering (35-39%), and some MSci courses (programmes)

CAPP Full example

CAPP Full example

CAPP Full example

CAPP timeline

December 2019, academic departments submit validation requests to School Education

Committee for approval by UG/PGT Director of Education,

assisted by SAQM

Once approved, AQPO will update Banner and CAPP

where necessary (April onwards)

The CAPP signatory in each academic department will

review the course (programme) structure in

CAPP via an Infoview report (May onwards).

Departments annotate an Infoview pdf report with any

changes; AQPO will investigate and amend as

necessary

Once approved by the academic department, AQPO

will notify Student Administration who will run the Mandatory Registration

Script (from 13 July 2020).

Students will be registered on their mandatory modules

(courses), student personal timetables will be correct, Mark

Management System will be accurate for 2020/21

CAPP - Infoview report

May onwards - an email will be sent to department signatories

Include details of report to be run in Infoview

Include details of how to annotate any amendments

Departments have 3 weeks to approve and return the report

Report will include any degree pathway which contains one of your department modules (courses)

Administrators have access to Infoview, but academic staff do not have access

Progs, Courses and Registrations folder:

Any queries can be directed to the AQPO email box:

Academic-Quality-and-Policy@rhul.ac.uk

CAPP - What could go wrong?

Students registered on the wrong mandatory modules (courses)

Affects their timetables

Extra work for admin to re-register the students/AQPO to correct CAPP/Depts to sign off

Students registered for the wrong number of credits

Too many/too few

Extra work for admin to correct credits/AQPO to correct CAPP/Depts to sign off

Mandatory modules (courses) have incorrect condonability

Affects progression/classification/AQPO to correct CAPP/Depts to sign off

Students receive the wrong course (programme) structure information

College receives complaints/litigation/Suspension of Regulations needed

Note: Modules (Courses) not running

Form on AQPO web page to permanently withdraw a module (course)

If not running for a year, leave in the basket

Good practice/tidy housekeeping!

AQPO web page:

Staff Intranet/Teaching (or via Professional Services/Academic Services)

Regulations and Policies, Quality Assurance Annual Reviews, Partnerships, Exam Board administration, External Examining, Suspension of Regulations, Validation and CMA guidance

General Email: Academic-Quality-and-Policy@rhul.ac.uk

CAPP information:

Staff Intranet/Teaching/AQPO/Validation

AQPO/CAPP further information