The necessity for innovation in undergraduate course design

Abstract

Major changes are taking place in the general "marketplace" for universities' undergraduate courses. There are unfavourable demographic trends; perhaps even more importantly, substantial innovations are occuring in the structure and style of school examinations; there are general moves towards widening access to university education; the requirements of employers of the graduates are being seen as of increased importance; and there are political pressures for change . It is argued that all these changes provide both an opportunity and the necessity for major innovation in undergraduate course design. Attention is particularly focussed on mathematics, where the highly sequential nature of the subject causes the problems to be more acute - but the opportunities to be that much greater . This paper is an adaptation of the author's MBA dissertation (Goodall, 1988), which considered also issues of the general management of innovation and the management of universities. Most of this discussion has been removed from the present paper. The work was completed in the autumn of 1988, and has already been overtaken by events in some areas. The concluding chapter provides a brief discussion of these further changes.