Procedure for curricula and course descriptions

This procedure applies to all curricula in the Faculty of Social Sciences.

This procedure is based on the University Act, the Education Order, the Exam Order, University of Copenhagen statutes for the allocation of responsibilities, and the overarching guidelines set out in the University of Copenhagen’s quality-assurance policy for study programmes.

Purpose
The procedure has several purposes. Firstly, clear, and unambiguous workflows ensure that statutory requirements are fully met. Secondly, the procedure ensures the maximum flow of knowledge, so that relevant knowledge is gained at different levels and through different processes, e.g., from the results of course evaluations, graduate surveys, meetings with employer panels and the chairs of the corps of external examiners. It also ensures that this knowledge flows to the board of studies. This allows the board of studies to organize the study programmes based on the accumulated knowledge. Finally, the procedure clarifies the allocation of responsibilities between the different actors.


Quality Assurance and Legality Control
It is stipulated in the statutes of the University of Copenhagen that the dean is responsible for ensuring the quality assurance and legality control of all study programmes.

The dean's approval of study programmes includes initial discussions about major changes as well as legality control. Legality control means that the study administration checks that the provisions in the Curricula's Common Part and Programme Specific Curricula comply with current regulations in the field of education, with general administrative law principles, and with the established rules at the University of Copenhagen. The study administration's legality control does not encompass the academic content of the Programme Specific Curricula.

To ensure continuous quality assurance, all study regulations and course descriptions are revised at least every three years.

The role of the Board of Studies and Head of Studies
Pursuant to the University Act, it is stipulated that the board of studies, in collaboration with the head of studies, are responsible for developing and revising the study regulations and the course offerings.

The head of studies is responsible for ensuring that the process is underpinned by the knowledge gained from course evaluations, graduate surveys, employer panels, exam complaint statistics and reports by the chairs of the corps of external examiners.


The study board and head of studies draw up proposals in close collaboration with other academic staff, in particular the course coordinators for specific fields and subject elements, as well as the pedagogical consultants concerning the pedagogical and didactic aspects. The board of studies and the head of the studies are responsible for the academic content of the curricula.


Quality Assurance of Academic Coherence
The board of studies ensures the quality of the study regulations so that there is consistency between the qualification’s framework, the programme competence profile, the academic learning objectives, teaching methods, and assessment methods.

It is the responsibility of the board of studies to ensure that:

  • The curriculum contains a precise and comprehensive competence profile for the programme. The competence profile should be divided into Knowledge, Skills, and Competencies.
  • The academic objectives and criteria for assessing goal achievement support and reflect the competence profile.
  • The content and structure of the degree programme underpin the competence profile.
  • the academic objectives/learning outcomes as well as the criteria for evaluating their fulfilment reflect and underpin the competence profile. Description of academic objectives/learning outcomes for each course element must be divided into knowledge, skills, and competences. Guidelines for drawing up statements of aims/learning outcome at the Faculty of Social Sciences can be found at KUnet (requires login).
  • The study programme includes a variety of types of exams, and that these reflect the content and methods of the teaching and, thus, underpin the competence profile.
  • the curriculum fits into the definition of the type of programme in question as defined by the Danish Qualifications framework for Lifelong Learning


If one or more changes are made to the competence profile in the curriculum, the administration must consider whether changes should be made to the competence profile in the diploma as well. The same applies to the Diploma Supplement. In addition, the boards of studies must ensure that proposals can be system integrated and that the programme complies with KU's guidelines for annual and schedule structure.


Quality Assurance of Course Offerings
New courses must be approved by the board of studies. The board of studies reviews any revisions to existing courses well in advance of the course catalogue being published. All courses are assessed according to the requirements outlined in the current study regulations as well as the applicable competence profiles. Thus, the board of studies ensures that the overall range of courses corresponds to the overall competence profile of the programme, thereby ensuring that students on the respective programme acquire the appropriate competence profile.


Involvement of other Stakeholders
If a proposed amendment to a curriculum is substantial this is discussed in the employer panel. Substantial changes to the study programmes' curricula that touch upon the examination system are sent for consultation to the chairs of the corps of external examiners.
Based on the responses to the consultation, the study board draws up proposals to amend the existing curricula.
The same applies to drawing up new curricula.

 
Notification of Changes
It is also the responsibility of the boards of studies - in collaboration with the head of studies and the study administration - to assess whether there is a need to notify of an upcoming change. Notification will primarily occur as a study message on the study information pages and/or on studier.ku.dk and potential by emails to the students enrolled in the respective study programmes.
The boards of studies must ensure that rules on transitional arrangements are established when necessary.


Publication
The curricula are published on the faculty website.
Course descriptions are published on https://kurser.ku.dk/