This page provides Course Directors, new and current, with a generic summary of key elements of course operations and processes. Further information about these general areas can be obtained from the following people:
Course Directors are expected to assist with processes such as mitigating circumstance reviews, fitness to practise panels, etc, as required for their own course and, reciprocally, for other courses.
All course teams should feature a non-clinical academic within the senior leadership (i.e. course directors and deputy directors). Course Directors should be aware that, particularly as Postgraduate level, the course administrator is responsible for multiple courses. Course Directors should also be aware that the role of the course administrator is not that of a secretary or personal assistant.
Key elements
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Undergraduate
- Mid-late January: entry deadline for most UG courses (although your course may stay open to applications depending on number; speak to admissions team)
- January to May: interviews for all Allied Healthcare courses
- February: Graduate medicine interviews
- Mid-May: UCAS opens; applicants can begin their applications, but can’t submit these until September; in most instances, the admissions officer can make decisions regarding whether or not an applicant should be interviewed/receive an offer as appropriate; speak to your admissions officer (or Head of Admissions) if you are unsure
- August: A-level results and clearing
- Mid-October: entry deadline for medicine
- December: UG Medicine interviews
Postgraduate
- Mid-May: UCAS opens for those PG courses who receive applications through UCAS
- Early November: all PG courses open for direct applications through SGUL website
- Mid-late January: entry deadline for UCAS applications
- Early May: Deadline for direct applications for those wishing to be considered for scholarship
- End June: Deadline for direct applications (although your course may stay open to applications depending on number; speak to admissions team)
Undergraduate and Postgraduate
- There will be events such as open days which you will be expected to attend and represent your course. These can be on Saturdays and in the evening and may be virtual or on site.
- Admissions Tutor: this is an academic member of staff who is primarily responsible for recruitment and applications (working with appropriate administrative/professional service teams)
- Student Online Teaching Survey (SOLTS): Student feedback on all modules is received via SOLTS. Burst-mode modules just have an end-of-module survey; longitudinal modules will have a mid-module survey as well. Module leads must provide a response to students (“close the loop”) based on this survey.
- Student Experience Survey (SES): internal survey for all non-final year UG students. Normally runs in Feb/March.
- National Student Survey (NSS): external survey for all final year UG students in the UK. Accessible from January to April; results published in July.
- Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES): external survey for all PGT students in UK; usually runs from February to mid-June with results at end of July
- View Student Surveys page for further information
- All appropriate surveys should be referred to as part of the Annual Programme Monitoring Report (APMR)
- The APMR captures all information relating to course recruitment, student numbers, cohort diversity, progression, achievement, student feedback, good practice, issues, external examiner comments, etc. This is one of the most important documents the CD must submit either to the Undergraduate Programme Committee (UPC) or Taught Postgraduate Course Committee (TPCC). Raw data provided to CDs October/November; submission deadline early January.
- A timetable of assessment dates and deadlines (including deadlines for marking and feedback) needs to be planned at least 6 months in advance of the start date. These cannot be changed once established without good reason and consultation (with students, course team, other stakeholders and relevant monitoring committee (UPC or TPCC)).
- External examiners need to review all assessments prior to them happening/being released to students. Furthermore, external examiners need to review a sample of marking after every assessment prior to ratification of results.
- Each course will have at least one external examiner; large courses will have several.
- The term of office for an external examiner is usually 4 years.
- Results are provisional until ratified at a Board of Examiners (BoE) meeting. There should be sufficient BoE meetings each year to ensure that students can progress smoothly through the course and to allow for resits/resubmissions. Resits/resubmissions can only happen once the original mark is ratified. All BoE meeting dates should be arranged by the January of the preceding academic year. Dates can only be changed via approval from the monitoring committee Chair and Vice-Chancellor. The Chair of the BoE is the CD of another course. All CDs are expected to Chair the BoE for another programme
- Students can appeal results, either provisional or ratified. See the academic appeal procedure page for more information.
- Course Committee (CC) Meetings: There should be at least two CC meetings per academic year. Membership of the CC usually includes Course Director, Deputy Director, Year Leads, Module/Theme/Pathway leads, Admissions Tutor, Personal Tutor/Welfare Lead but may be smaller or more extensive depending on the course. The Chair of the CC is the Course Director.
- Attend institutional meetings: Programmes Forum, UPC/TPCC, etc. Representation by the Course Director or Deputy Course Director is mandatory for UPC/TPCC.
- The overall teaching timetable needs to be submitted to the appropriate administrator no later than March for the following academic year. This is to enable room-booking to occur. It is not, therefore, necessary to give fine detail about each teaching session (if this is not possible) but to provide sufficient detail so that the appropriate type and size room can be booked.
- Clinical placements (if relevant) need to be planned far in advance of each academic year.
- All courses should have a personal tutor system providing pastoral support to the students. Details vary.
- Interruption of Studies: some students may require time out from the study for a variety of reasons. Usually this is up to one year. More details can be found on the registry documentation page.
- More often, students may require ask to submit an assessment later or request to defer an exam. This is dealt with via the Extension Request and Mitigating Circumstances routes (PG only) or the Mitigating Circumstances or Extenuating Circumstances process (UG and some PG). Information about mitigating circumstances (and other assessment information) can be found on the exams page.
For more information, view our Course Directors' guide, 2024 - 2025.
Or contact the following people for these main areas:
- Director of External Relations, Communications and Marketing: Sarah De Gatacre
- Head of Marketing: Jessica Kilbride
- Head of Admissions: Lucy Gee
- Quality Assurance and Enhancement Manager: Glen Delahaye
- Student Experience Team: experience@sgul.ac.uk
- Head of Undergraduate Science Administration: Karolina Ossowska-Baker
- Head of Allied Health Programmes Administration: Jonathon Fee
- Head of Postgraduate Administration: Emma Embleton
- Co-ordinator of the SGUL Personal Tutor System: Suman Rice
- Welfare Lead for Postgraduate Taught Programmes: Kate Everett-Korn