Higher Education (MA) – (M.A.)

Course Content

The four modules which make up this programme are:

* XX4HE1 - Improving the student's learning experience: pedagogical theory and practice
* XX4HE2 - Society and Higher Education: politics, politics and pedagogy
* XX4HE3 - Assessment, Learning and Higher Education
* XX4HE4 - The nature and role of pedagogic research

Course Structure
Knowledge within the course will be generated in three main ways: by reflecting on personal, professional experience; through discussion with others; and by reading and listening to commentators, scholars and policy makers. The learning is collaborative and tasks require the active involvement of participants. The modules take a problem/case based approach and include:

* self-paced study for approximately 200 hours guided by set tasks, reading and on-line interest and reading groups and

* face-to-face teaching which will take place in three two-day study blocks amounting to 30 hours and which will include a variety of group activities in seminar (for example, buzz groups; cross-overs); formal presentations (by tutors and students); short writing tasks individually and in groups; and, individual tutorials (two hours to discuss the assessment assignment and a minimum of six for the dissertation).
* The sixty-credit dissertation completes the award of MA and is an original piece of work which should be of 12,000-15,000 words and should be completed on September 1st or May 1st in the year the modules are completed.
* The completed MA is a 180 credit course. The course is normally a minimum of two years' part-time study, during which the participants attend sessions which are organised in three two-day blocks (30 hours) for each of four thirty credit modules which are taken at the rate of one each semester. Preparation and follow-up work of approximately 270 hours will be required.

Written assignment

Each of the four 30-credit modules is assessed by a written assignment of 5,000-6,000 words. Each assignment is numerically graded as Distinction, Merit, Pass or Fail, as is the overall result. For a participant to complete the course successfully, a Pass must be achieved on each assignment.

Dissertation

The sixty-credit dissertation completes the award of MA and is an original piece of work which should be of 12,000-15,000 words and should be completed on September 1st or May 1st in the year the modules are completed.