See how we are improving our curriculum to provide the best learning community for our students and staff.
What is Curriculum Reimagined?
Curriculum Reimagined is a review of our educational offer and the structures that support it. The changes resulting from it will support the University's Strategy 2035, enhance student experience, close awarding gaps, and improve graduate outcomes.
The project has two key elements:
- Restoring: Fixing current frameworks and support systems
- Reimagining: Developing a clear vision for education delivery that prioritises inclusivity and ensures regular curriculum reviews, keeping the University adaptable to both internal and external changes.
As part of a recent review of the Capital Programme, the duration and scope of the Curriculum Reimagined project has also been reviewed. It now focuses on embedding key deliverables in our structures and processes during 2025. The end date of the project is now July 2025.
Curriculum Reimagined is divided into three sub-projects:
1. Sussex Academic Framework: A unified approach to curriculum, teaching, and assessment. The Sussex Academic Framework will define our overall educational offer and specify how it is delivered. It will include clarity on our assessment framework that will address problems identified by both staff and students and help us move towards consistency of practice.
2. Sussex Choice: A refreshed interdisciplinary offer with two components: a review and clarification of our current electives and elective pathways; and the development of a distinctive, compelling and agile framework for interdisciplinary teaching in the context of Sussex 2035.
3. Sussex Prospectus: Improving the applicant experience and making course changes easier and more compliant with Competition and Marketing Authority (CMA) requirements.
Progress so far
Since Curriculum Reimagined started in 2023, our sub-projects have involved extensive engagement with both staff and students, alongside reviewing best practice across the sector. We have listened carefully to feedback and focused our priorities in response to this feedback.
The curriculum framework element of the Sussex Academic Framework was developed and written in 2023/24 and will be integrated with our overall Academic Framework
Our work on assessment and feedback will provide guidance and policy to:
- Reduce the bunching of assessment and feedback
- Enable assessment and feedback to become more inclusive by ‘designing out’ the need for reasonable adjustment
- Enable time for useful feed-forward on assessment
- Clarify and create norms/templates for assessment briefs, assessment criteria and rubric, and for written feedback itself.
The sub-project on Sussex Choice has:
- Conducted a review of the existing elective offer to simplify this and ensure that it is compliant with our timetabling framework
- Developed a proposal to suspend existing non-language pathways
- Drafted a proposal for the revised Sussex Choice offer, framed through the strategic themes of Sussex 2035: human flourishing, environmental sustainability and digital and data futures, and to be overseen by a new Sussex Choice Board.
The Prospectus sub-project has identified key requirements to ensure that the prospectus is compliant with CMA requirements. These will be taken up by a CMA working group with representation from academic units and colleagues in Web, Marketing and Legal Services.
Next steps
These projects will be concluded over the remaining months of the project. This will involve consultation and approval via relevant committees, and a focus on ensuring that the outputs of Curriculum Reimagined are embedded in our structures and processes such as portfolio review, course change and revalidation.
Related and dependent projects
Projects that Curriculum Reimagined is closely linked with include:
- Student Information System
- timetabling projects
- e-assessments
- connected experiences programme.