Taking Advantage of Whole University Change to Embed Inclusivity in Course Design

Helen Childs

Tuesday 18th June, 12:45-13:30

At the University of Kent, in September 2023 a new, university wide strategy was launched, calling for a change in how our academic year operates starting in AY 25/26. This has meant that all courses and modules have had to be redesigned to fit a new credit structure. Many academics are taking this opportunity to approach their courses as a blank slate, and completely reconceptualise how students learn, develop and are assessed throughout their student journey. Your Name As part of this change, inclusivity and accessibility have been put on the redesign agenda from the start. The Assessment Framework is being updated to reflect a modern way of assessment; part of the scope has been to remove outdated or problemative assessment types and build in a wider variety of assessment practices, including the opportunity to offer multiple assessment options for one submission where this is possible under external accreditation. Each new course specification and module specification must be reviewed by a panel of both academic and professional services members of staff. This includes at least one representative from Student Support and Wellbeing, to ensure that accessibility concerns are challenged and resolved from the outset. Excellent pockets of work are being born out of this review, tackling long standing issues in some academic areas; working with academic colleagues at the course and module inception stage to think of ways to build in inclusivity, so that students would be less reliant on reasonable adjustments to retroactively adjust poorly designed areas. Whole University change can be a hugely uncertain time, and a very stressful one for both academic and professional services who are under a lot of pressure to work to tight deadlines. Many Universities may be reviewing their portfolio of work and looking at redesigns to be more competitive in the wider University marketplace, given the financial uncertainty many institutions face. However, these opportunities can be seized upon to bang the drum of inclusivity, improving the experience for all our students, disabled and otherwise, as well as being an attractive recruitment prospect for future students who value inclusivity and diversity in their Higher Education experience.