Changes are made under the following circumstances:

• A member of staff, using their professional judgement determines that a module would be improved if a minor change were made to it, for example to the method of assessment, or that a programme would be improved if a minor change were made to it, for example, to replace an existing module with a new module;
• Feedback from students indicates that they wish to see changes made;
• There are external changes made to the subject nationally, such as changes to the QAA subject benchmarks or an external professional body requires changes (such as BPS (British Psychological Society), NCTL (National College of Teaching and Leadership)).

Before minor changes can be made, the relevant External Examiner is consulted. The proposed changes have to be approved by an academic committee and the Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

Major changes to a programme have to be considered by a Programme Approval Panel. Such panels normally include both an external expert and a student.

Whilst the University will make every effort to offer the modules listed, changes may sometimes be made arising from the annual monitoring, review and update of modules and regular (five-yearly) revalidation of programmes. Where this activity leads to significant (but not minor) changes to programmes and their modules, there will be consultation of students and others.

Modules

It is also possible that the University may not be able to offer a module for reasons outside of its control, such as the illness of a member of staff or sabbatical leave.  Not all optional modules will be offered every year and programmes will inform students of the optional modules running for their next year of study in good time to assist choice.

Some optional modules can have limited places available and so you may be asked to make additional module choices in the event you do not gain a place on your first choice. There are also minimum numbers of students required for some optional modules to run. Where the first choice does not run or there are insufficient number for the module to run, the University will endeavour to inform students promptly.