Programme Amendments for 2025-26

Programme Amendments for 2025-26

The deadline for making changes to taught programmes for the 2025-26 academic year is fast approaching. This article will run through the things you need to do to hit the 7 June deadline.

What is a programme amendment?

At its simplest, a programme is a published journey that a student follows which, by the end of it, qualifies them for a named award. A programme amendment is anything that changes the shape of that journey, including but not limited to:

• the criteria for entry
• the name of the award
• the method by which the programme is delivered, or
• the rules governing how students combine their modules.

At UCL, we take a risk-based approach to reviewing and approving changes to programmes, categorising them as either minor, moderate, or major. You can find more detail about the different categories in Chapter 7B of the Academic Manual.

How do I request a change to my programme?

Where there is a clear, evidenced, need to make changes to a programme of study you will need to complete and submit a programme amendment application to your Department Teaching Committee (by published department process and deadline). Any approved applications will then need to be submitted by the Department to your Faculty Education Committee.

Faculty approved applications must be submitted no later than 7 June to the following teams:

• For minor amendments – to the Student Lifecycle Team for processing.
• For moderate amendments – to the Academic Policy Quality and Standards (APQS) Team for information and onward notification to other teams.
• For major amendments – to the APQS Team for consideration by the Programme Amendments Working Group.

How do I avoid unnecessary delays?

To aid those completing and reviewing applications for programme amendments, we’ve put together the seven most common pitfalls that can cause delays, and how to avoid them.

1. Give a response for every section of the form.

A blank box is a question without an answer. The teams reviewing the forms need an answer to that question, even if its “NA”, as it's not our role to assume what you wanted to say.

2. Send in all the supporting documents and approvals

At a minimum, every programme amendment will have two documents, the programme amendment form, and the amended programme summary, inclusive of tracked changes. Moderate and major amendments should also have some evidence of external scrutiny.  Finally, we need evidence of sign off from the relevant department and faculty approvers.

3. Keep things consistent between documents

It is worth spending a last half an hour checking across all documents before you submit them to ensure that you are asking for the same thing across all of them. Several delays are caused by version control issues, e.g., calling modules different things on different documents, so half an hour at the outset could save a couple of weeks at the other end.

4. Know your audience

Your programme amendment application will be looked at by various people, at increasing levels of abstraction from your programme, as part of the scrutiny and approval process. Bear that in mind when drafting it – how would you explain what you are asking for to a non-expert who knows nothing about how your programme currently runs.

5. Be clear in your intent

While it will be obvious to you why you need to make the changes to your programme, it won’t be obvious to everyone. Why is the current situation a problem? What will making the changes achieve for students? How do they continue to align with the programme learning outcomes and practice in the discipline?

6. Respond to your external scrutineer

Most colleagues remember to provide evidence of external scrutiny; however, it is often the case that there is no evidence of how that scrutiny has been incorporated. Before submitting your amendment application, take the time to write a brief response to any specific points raised by your scrutineer, and where you may have made changes in response.

7. Ask for help

Making changes to a programme is a rare occurrence for an individual programme leader. There are many colleagues who can support you through the process. Some of these are listed below.

Where can I get help or further information?

There are several colleagues who can answer questions, or talk you through, aspects of the programme amendment process.

Faculty Education Team

Your Faculty Office will have colleagues with experience of preparing and reviewing programme amendment applications. Thet can help with most questions that you may have about the process, as well as talk through the changes you want to make.

Higher Education Development and Support Institute (HEDS)

Your HEDS Faculty Partnership Team can help you to understand what changes to your programme may be effective and support you to design enhancements that are based on good practice and current pedagogy.

Academic Policy, Quality and Standards Team

Each faculty has named contacts in the APQS team who are on hand to advise on the programme amendment process. Faculty Education Teams can consult with their contacts on aspects of the process that they are unsure of. They can also flag where anything large or non-standard may be expected.

Further information the programme amendment process, and the relevant forms, can be found in Chapter 7 of the Academic Manual.

Contact details for further information: See above