2020-21 MA in Social and Public Policy (Online) Programme Design Document

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1	1. Admissions/ Management Information
2	Title of the programme – including any lower awards Please provide the titles used for all awards relating to this programme. Note: all programmes are required to have at least a Postgraduate Certificate exit award. See guidance on programme titles in:
3	https://www.york.ac.uk/media/staffhome/learningandteaching/documents/programmedevelopment/Framework%20for%20Programme%20Design%20-%20PG.pdf
4	Masters			MA in Social and Public Policy
5	Postgraduate Diploma			Postgraduate Diploma in Social and Public Policy						Please indicate if the Postgraduate Diploma is available as an entry point, ie. is a programme on which a student can register, is an exit award, ie. is only available to students exiting the masters programme early, or both.					Exit
6	Postgraduate Certificate			Postgraduate Certificate in Social and Public Policy						Please indicate if the Postgraduate Certificate is available as an entry points, ie. is a programme on which a student can register, is an exit award, ie. is only available to students exiting the masters programme early, or both.					Exit
7	Level of qualification			Level 7
8	This document applies to students who commenced the programme(s) in:							2020-21
9	Awarding institution								Teaching institution
10	University of York								University of York
11	Department(s): Where more than one department is involved, indicate the lead department								Board of Studies
12	Lead Department		SPSW						Board of Studies
13	Other contributing Departments:								Board of Studies
14	Route code (existing programmes only)							PMSPYSSPP1
15	Admissions criteria
16	You should normally have at least a 2:1 degree or equivalent qualification. However, if you do not meet this requirement but have relevant work experience with good academic potential you are encouraged to apply. You should also have professional experience in public or social policy. This could be in roles at local or national government, or in non-governmental and inter-governmental organisations, the voluntary and charitable sector, and private sector roles which support or deliver public services. If your native language is not English you will need to show evidence of your English language ability. Some exceptions apply, but the standard accepted qualifications are listed below: IELTS: 6.5, with no less than 6.0 in each component Pearson (PTE): 61, with no less than 55 in each component CAE and CPE (from January 2015): 176, with no less than 169 in each component TOEFL: 87, with with no less than 21 in each component Trinity ISE: level 3 with Merit in all components Students furthermore need to have a computer in their home with an internet connection (minimum 0.5mbps) and an office software suite compatible with Word and Excel formats.
17	Length and status of the programme(s) and mode(s) of study
18	Programme				Length (years/ months)	Status (full-time/ part-time) Please select	Start dates/months (if applicable – for programmes that have multiple intakes or start dates that differ from the usual academic year)		Mode
19
20									Face-to-face, campus-based			Distance learning		Other
21	MA in Social and Public Policy				2 years	Part-time			Please select Y/N		No	Please select Y/N	Yes
22	Diploma in Social and Public Policy				18 months	Part-time			Please select Y/N		No	Please select Y/N	Yes
23	Certificate in Social and Public Policy				1 year	Part-time			Please select Y/N		No	Please select Y/N	Yes
24	Language(s) of study
25	English
26	Language(s) of assessment
27	English
28	2. Programme accreditation by Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Bodies (PSRB)
29	2.a. Is the programme recognised or accredited by a PSRB
30	Please Select Y/N:		No	if No move to section 3 if Yes complete the following questions
37	3. Additional Professional or Vocational Standards
38	Are there any additional requirements of accrediting bodies or PSRB or pre-requisite professional experience needed to study this programme?
39	Please Select Y/N:		No	if Yes, provide details
41	4. Programme leadership and programme team
42	4.a. Please name the programme leader for the year to which the programme design applies and any key members of staff responsible for designing, maintaining and overseeing the programme.
43	Kevin Caraher, Associate Programme Leader; Enrico Reuter, Programme Leader for Online Masters Programmes; Ellen Roberts, Director of the Online Masters Programmes in Public Management
44	5. Purpose and learning outcomes of the programme
45	5.a. Statement of purpose for applicants to the Masters programme Please express succinctly the overall aims of the programme as an applicant facing statement for a prospectus or website. This should clarify to a prospective masters student why they should choose this programme, what it will provide to them and what benefits they will gain from completing it.
46	This Masters programme will equip you with the skills and knowledge to shape and influence policy. You will deepen your understanding of policy-making and explore the interaction between policy-making on the local, national and global level. You will assess and analyse how social policy-making interacts with and is shaped by socio-economic structures and conflictual political processes and the ways in which globalisation dynamics impact on and are filtered through national social policies. You will use evidence to improve social policy practice and develop a range of transferable skills such as critical thinking and designing and conducting research. You will be studying in the Department of Social Policy which is ranked highly in both UK and Global rankings, and this online programme will enable you to combine your studies with both your career and family. You will study alongside your peers working in similar organisations around the world and you will actively engage with them and share ideas, learning and experience as you progress through your course. You will acquire the understanding and skills required to integrate your learning and insights immediately in your organisation, and to further your career in a wide range of public service and non-profit sector organisations shaping both policy and the future of public services.
51	5.b.i. Programme Learning Outcomes - Masters Please provide six to eight statements of what a graduate of the Masters programme will be able to do. If the document only covers a Postgraduate Certificate or Postgraduate Diploma please specify four to six PLO statements in the sections 5.b.ii and 5.b.iii as appropriate. Taken together, these outcomes should capture the distinctive features of the programme. They should also be outcomes for which progressive achievement through the course of the programme can be articulated, and which will therefore be reflected in the design of the whole programme.
52	PLO	On successful completion of the programme, graduates will be able to:
53	1	Identify, analyse and critically respond to current challenges in social and public policy, drawing on an in-depth understanding of continuities, change and reform in the public and non-profit sector
54	2	Analyse and interpret policy options and complex policy processes by effectively applying the tools of policy analysis to real world examples
55	3	Identify and critically engage with the ways in which globalisation dynamics impact on and are filtered through national social policies
56	4	Assess and analyse how complex conflictual political processes and socio- economic factors shape social and public policy-making from problem identification to implementation
57	5	Interpret, assess and explain to lay and academic audiences the complex layers of organisations, stakeholders and agents that form multi-level governance networks, in order to contribute to effective policy-making and public management
58	6	Independently research, critically analyse and communicate findings from interdisciplinary scholarship relevant to their professional context and interest
59	7	Collaborate and communicate as practitioners in a digital networked world, drawing on their learning about the dynamics of global and national policy-making
60	8
77	5.c. Explanation of the choice of Programme Learning Outcomes Please explain your rationale for choosing these PLOs in a statement that can be used for students (such as in a student handbook). Please include brief reference to:
78	i) ... in what way will these PLOs result in an ambitious, challenging programme which stretches the students?
79	The design of this programme aims to challenge students by combining breadth of understanding concerning social and public policy with depth of exploration of specific aspects of policy reform at macro/meso and micro levels of governance. It is also challenging in that it addresses and critiques some basic, 'taken for granted', assumptions that have become part of the accepted landscape of public service delivery worldwide. These assumptions centre, theoretically, on the dominant ‘neo-liberal’ ideas of 'New Public Management' and marketization of public goods and services- ideas which are critiqued from the beginning of the programme and throughout. These ideas include perceptions of the relative merits of, and relationship between, the public and private sectors. The level of critique provided within the programme enables students to develop a broader and deeper view of their professional context. A second type of challenge concerns the theory/ practice connections that are explored throughout the programme. Students are challenged continually to critique their practice and context in the light of the theory, and vice versa. These aspects of the programme design enable students to develop the critical awareness of current problems that is expected at M Level, and to develop new insights. Students are also able not only to evaluate critically current research and advanced scholarship in the field of public administration, but to apply this evaluation to their understanding of how public administration is practised, and thus to enhance their own practice. The programme has been designed so that students first acquire a broad' big picture' understanding, and are then able to focus in depth on a specialist area, chosen in line with their professional development priorities, and on the development of further skills and understanding that is relevant to the practice of social and public policy analysis and administration. The dissertation then enables them to apply and integrate this understanding, by working on a specific issue that is relevant to their professional context.
80	ii) ... in what way will these PLOs produce a programme which is distinctive and advantageous to the student?
81	The online, global reach of the programme means that the student body spans many countries and types of professional context, including public, private and non-governmental organisations operating at local, national, international and intergovernmental levels. Students gain new insights and perspectives through engaging in the collaborative fora that are built into the pedagogy and that bring them together, despite physical distance. This approach also gives students an understanding of how their particular context, and that of others, shapes the practice of public administration. The programme is also distinctive in the focus that it places on linking theory to practice. As well as enabling students to link theory and practice module-by-module, the programme also develops the underpinning skill of 'reflective practice', which enables students to develop a deeper understanding of their own professional practice, their organisational context and the issues involved in translating their learning into their professional context. This 'meta-skill' is designed to enable students to become effective learners for their ongoing professional development, after the programme has ended. Students also develop the skill of being able to communicate within a virtual context - something that is increasingly relevant in the modern workplace.
82	iii) ... how the design of the programme enables students from diverse entry routes to transition successfully into the programme? For example, how does the organisation of the programme ensure solid foundations in disciplinary knowledge and understanding of conventions, language skills, mathematics and statistics skills, writing skills, lab skills, academic integrity
83	Students come from a diverse range of backgrounds, in terms both of their professional experience and their previous experience of academic study. While the language entry requirements ensure that all students have sufficient command of English, there is more unavoidable disparity in terms of academic experience, and in terms of students’ preparedness for online study and for the particular challenges of managing work and study in parallel. Substantial orientation is therefore carried out via a pre-programme Welcome Site and in particular via a two-week non-assessed but compulsory Induction module. The Induction module includes collaborative group exercises to generate practical tips for studying alongside work, and a set of ground-rules to guide the group discussions. The module also provides guidance and practice in academic reading, note-taking and referencing. The module also explicitly surfaces the norms that govern higher education in the UK/ the West, and invites discussion about this.
84	iv) ... how the programme is designed to enable students to progress successfully - in a limited time frame - through to the end of the award? For example, the development of higher level research skills; enabling students to complete an independent study module; developing competence and confidence in practical skills/ professional skills. See QAA masters characteristics doument http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/Masters-Degree-Characteristics-15.pdf
85	This is a two-year part-time programme of study, which begins by setting some key theoretical foundations in place, and which then moves through specialisation and further enhancement of professional skills to a dissertation which integrates learning from different areas of the programme and applies it to an issue that is relevant to the student's professional context. The design of the programme provides for a 'scaffolded' approach: opportunities to practice and develop/ refresh key academic skills are built into the first two modules via formative written exercises which build towards the summative assessment, together with other tasks such as a library/ referencing exercise. There is also an emphasis on ensuring that students can develop an appreciation of marking standards and criteria (Sadler 2009), through exercises that engage with marking criteria and ask students to practice 'marking' sample essays. Academic skills are reinforced in later modules, for example by exercises which ask students to reflect on and discuss the feedback they have received on past assignments and to identify how they will respond to it. Exercises to practice writing and related skills such as library searching and referencing are also built into later modules. More generally, students' progression is supported via a proactive approach by supervisors, which involves regular contacts to discuss progress. Students are encouraged to review their progress, including the feedback received on assignments, and to identify points to focus on to aid their further development. A set of study skills materials has been developed specifically for SPSW's online students, and includes a short online self-study course. Supervisors signpost students to this course as appropriate. As mentioned at 5 (ii), one of the 'meta-skills' developed by these studies is that of reflective practice. This is tackled via two modules which build skills in this area in relation to the individual student and then their working environment. This progression also enables students to develop awareness of how to apply their learning from their studies within their workplace; this approach takes advantage of the fact that students are simultaneously studying and working, and that there are thus opportunities for immediate application from one arena to the other (Brooks and Roberts 2015). Skills for the dissertation are developed via the Dissertation Workshop which takes a step by step approach to preparing the dissertation proposal. Formative exercises to develop academic skills undertaken in earlier modules (as outlined at 5 (ii)) also help students to prepare for this final-stage work.
86	v) ... how this programme (as outlined in these PLOs) will develop students’ digital literacy skills and how technology-enhanced learning will be used to support active student learning through peer/tutor interaction, collaboration and formative (self) assessment opportunities (reference could be made to such as blogging, flipped classrooms, response 'clickers' in lectures, simulations, etc).
87	The programme is taught wholly online, via a Virtual Learning Environment, and thus offers rich opportunities for the development of digital literacy skills, and for using technology-enhanced learning to support active learning. The approach to teaching and learning is based on social constructivist principles, as the emphasis that this approach places on the construction of knowledge and understanding through interaction with others is very appropriate for a professional development programme of this nature. Students thus learn partly through comparing and debating contexts and experiences. A-synchronous tutor-led discussions are therefore a key part of the learning design. (Although synchronous contacts are also offered and frequently used for one to one interaction, they are not built into the programme design in the same way, because wide variations in time zones across over 40 countries and the fact that students are combining full-time employment with part-time study means that opportunities for group-based real-time interactions are very constrained.) The tutor-led discussion fora provide the backbone for the group learning process and support a variety of activities which are akin to the 'seminar' type activities used on campus-based programmes. These include discussions to explore a specific point from the theory and relate it to professional experience; case studies; debates; role plays; and sharing and peer review of individual work such as dissertation proposals. The role of 'tutor presence' (Garrison and Anderson 2003) is central to the design of these processes. While written text is the main medium for much of the academic content and for the discussion fora, tutors also make use of short videos and presentations, for example to convey threshold concepts or to sum up key points from the discussion fora.
88	vi) ... how this programme (as outlined in these PLOs) will support and enhance the students’ employability (for example, opportunities for students to apply their learning in a real world setting)? The programme's employability objectives should be informed by the University's Employability Strategy:
89	http://www.york.ac.uk/about/departments/support-and-admin/careers/staff/
90	The programme has been designed to provide professional development for those who are in employment and are seeking to study in this area in order to further their career, or to move to a new and more policy-focused role. As described at 5 (i) the whole programme has been designed to enable the knowledge, understanding and skills acquired to be applied to the workplace, and there is a strong emphasis on developing a 'big picture' view which will enable students to make sense of, put into context and critique their professional environment. Each of the PLOs has been designed to develop understanding and skills that will be directly relevant in the workplace. Specific skills developed by the programme include the capacity to develop and implement policy, to use evidence to improve policy, and to operate in complex environments involving multiple stakeholders and layers of governance. More broadly, students also develop skills in critical analysis, problem -solving, and communication. Students are able to access the services offered by Careers, including interviews with Careers staff, access to the mentoring service, and advice on CVs and job applications. [NB The University Employability Strategy does not appear to relate easily to postgraduate professional development programmes and so is not referenced here.]
93	viii) ... how learning and teaching on the programme are informed and led by research in the department/ Centre/ University?
94	The design of this programme involves the development of a set of module material, for each module, which introduces students to the key concepts, theories and frameworks, and which also incorporates a set of key readings per week (known as Core Readings) and suggestions for optional, additional reading. This body of material is kept up to date with regular revisions, and so this approach lends itself particularly well to ensuring that the module content, and the teaching process, is informed by research within the department and university and more broadly. Teaching staff also draw on their own research as appropriate/ relevant in developing the module content and in their teaching. The programme as a whole is informed by the department's international research expertise, which feeds through into the content of the programme and its delivery.
95	5.d. Progression For masters programmes where students do not incrementally 'progress' on the completion of a discrete Postgraduate Certificate and Postgraduate Diploma, please summarise students’ progressive development towards the achievement of the PLOs, in terms of the characteristics that you expect students to demonstrate at the end of the set of modules or part thereof. This summary may be particularly helpful to students and the programme team where there is a high proportion of option modules and in circumstances where students registered on a higher award will exit early with a lower one. Note: it is not expected that a position statement is written for each masters PLO, but this can be done if preferred.
96	On completion of modules sufficient to obtain a Postgraduate Certificate students will be able to: If the PG Cert is an exit award only please provide information about how students will have progressed towards the diploma/masters PLOs. Please include detail of the module diet that students will have to have completed to gain this qualification as an exit award.
97	The PG Certificate is available only as an exit award. Students who exit with a PG Certificate will have completed the following modules: Social Policy Analysis; Globalisation and Social Policy; Social Policy: Evidence, Ideas and Institutions. They will therefore be able to identify key social and public policy trends and the implications of these trends for both their work environment and broader society; understand and apply tools and frameworks for policy analysis at micro/meso and macro levels; and draw on an understanding of the global and regional factors that shape and constrain public policies to analyse policy issues and the causes of policy failure.
98	On completion of modules sufficient to obtain a Postgraduate Diploma students will be able to: If the PG Diploma is an exit award only please provide information about how students will have progressed towards the masters PLOs. Please include detail of the module diet that students will have to have completed to gain this qualification as an exit award.
99	The PG Diploma is available only as an exit award. Students who exit with a PG Diploma will have completed the following modules, in addition to those completed for the Certificate: Introduction to Research Methods; the Dissertation Workshop, Digital Capabilities for Global Citizenship and an option module on either Housing and Social Justice; Comparative Social Policy or Work, Welfare and Citizenship. They will thus be able to identify strategies for analysing and influencing policy reform and change depending on the choice of Option; explore the issues involved in working collaboratively and communicating their findings to a group of peers, as well as develop research skills relevant to their current and future work place.
100	6. Reference points and programme regulations
101	6.a. Relevant Quality Assurance Agency benchmark statement(s) and other relevant external reference points Please state relevant reference points consulted (e.g. Framework for Higher Education Qualifications, National Occupational Standards, Subject Benchmark Statements or the requirements of PSRBs): See also Taught Postgraduate Modular Scheme: Framework for Programme Design:
102	https://www.york.ac.uk/media/staffhome/learningandteaching/documents/programmedevelopment/Framework%20for%20Programme%20Design%20-%20PG.pdf
103	http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/Masters-Degree-Characteristics-15.pdf
104	http://www.qaa.ac.uk/assuring-standards-and-quality/the-quality-code/subject-benchmark-statements
105	http://www.qaa.ac.uk/publications/information-and-guidance/publication?PubID=2843#.VthM1fmLS70
106
107	6.b. University award regulations
108	The University’s award and assessment regulations apply to all programmes: any exceptions that relate to this programme are approved by University Teaching Committee and are recorded at the end of this document.
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