The Greater Manchester Way

OUR STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENT

The University of Greater Manchester will become the UK’s leading Teaching Intensive, Research Informed Assessment Enabled (TIRIAE) institution through an innovative approach to curriculum and assessment design and delivery.

Our University will provide learning and education opportunities through its innovative block teaching model offered from its main campus, its satellite campuses and in collaboration with our national and international partner education offerings.

The TIRIAE approach to learning is aligned with the Academic Strategy 2030 and provides a focus for the University to become a sector leader in supporting our students through curriculum and assessment innovation in block delivery mode, which will become known as the Greater Manchester Way (GMW).

We are committed to achieving a step change in student success and retention through curriculum and assessment strategies supported by streamlined academic regulations and protocols that are fit for purpose and are of the highest quality.

We will exceed the expectations of our students, communities, and industry stakeholders. We will design and tailor block model pedagogies, educational offerings, learning environments and student experiences based on international best practice, that increase retention, progression and student achievement.

The TIRIAE focus on curriculum and assessment innovation will enable us to strengthen the University’s reputation as an innovative high-quality education provider. It will advance the central role of formative assessment and feedback in the educative process and curriculum offering to achieve greater student success.

The University will introduce Phase 1 of the TIRIAE focused GMW in 2025, delivering a number of programmes in block format. In 2026 the University will scale up to offer the majority of its programmes through this approach to learning. Through our TIRIAE focused GMW immersive delivery methods we will become known for our learner-centred focus on curriculum and assessment innovation that has students at its heart and that will be designed to address real world problems that matter to our community.

The TIRIAE approach to learning has been designed to guide investment, and focus resources on initiatives that enhance programme quality, innovative learning and teaching, and strengthens the student experience.

OUR ASPIRATIONS

VISION

The University of Greater Manchester will be renowned for excellence in student engagement and experience through an innovative curriculum and assessment offering that is teaching intensive, research informed and assessment enabled, tackling real world issues that matter to our community.

MISSION

Building on our strengths as the leading University in the North-West of England for student satisfaction and teaching quality, we will provide flexible, immersive, high quality learning, teaching and assessment opportunities for our diverse student community.

OUR PERFORMANCE ARENAS

The Academic Strategy 2030 calls for a ‘shift’ in our education offer to ensure University sustainability and student success. It states that we must prioritise our ‘fundamental mission to advance our impact and outcomes’ on the educational gain of our diverse student community.

OUR THREE CORE PLANS

1. Develop and implement the Greatermanchester way (Gmw)

Partner with our students to co-create their GMW learning environment
Intentionally design GMW block delivery mode
Create a sustainable, learner-centred GMW offering
Embrace innovative curriculum and assessment
Establish a taskforce to lead implementation of the GMW

2. Embrace Tiriae Strategy In Assessment Enabled Learning

Implement TIRIAE principles and pedagogies
Develop assessment enabled learning and teaching best practice in block delivery mode
Design leading edge formative assessment and feedback strategies to foster effective learning
Engage in active dissemination of good practice and knowledge exchange

3. Streamline Regulations And Procedures To Enhance Quality

‘Declutter’ and rationalise University functions
Streamline regulatory and procedural processes
Use design sprint methodology for 3-day approval process
Competency and skills basis for assessment and academic judgments

Our Three Foundational and Enabling Strategies

Establish a holistic staff support system through TIRIAE that develops, nurtures, recognises, and rewards staff in pursuit of quality, excellence, and innovation through the GMW model of university education.
Create a comprehensive GMW Evaluation Scheme to support the continuous improvement of UGM’s intensive block teaching mode.
Develop and implement a wide-ranging Communications Plan for staff, students and stakeholders

Overarching Principles

Student engagement
Student involvement and belonging
Effective learning design
Active and collaborative learning
Assessment enables learning
A coherent systemic curriculum structure

Our Performance Indicators

Each Core Plan and accompanying Foundational and Enabling strategy will support the University’s strategic targets aligned with the Academic Strategy 2030 that calls for:

A step change in student retention
A sharp uplift in our educational outcomes
Increasedlevels of student satisfaction.
Increased levels of student progression and completion rates

Create a sustainable and strategic programme portfolio in block teaching mode based on innovative curriculum and assessment design that provides relevant education offerings for our domestic and international students in Greater Manchester and beyond.

A refreshed strategy for academic activity is needed, not because initiatives that have created our current strengths are no longer relevant or important. The TIRIAE focus will build on its TIRI predecessor, and on the Platinum programmes initiative and the laser focus UGM has had on the student experience, to enable the University to achieve a step change in student retention and a substantial improvement in educational outcomes in educational outcomes as demanded by the Academic Strategy 2030.

Our programs will be streamlined in structure, innovative in design and pedagogy, and offered in intensive block mode based on international best practice, optimising ongoing learning opportunities and successful outcomes for the diverse student demographic. The GMW approach to University education proposes a rethinking and re-ordering of the curriculum with a focus on formative assessment, support for learning and student success. Rather than teaching three modules over fifteen weeks, as per the standard semester model, staff teach them one at a time, consecutively, over five weeks each.

Implementation: Planning Principles and Actions:

Phase 1: A number of targeted undergraduate programmes offered through GMW in 2025. Phase 2: Scale up to majority of GMU programmes offered in this mode 2026. Phase 2.5: Full role out of all GMU programmes (bar agreed exceptions) in February 2027.
Exceptions to be approved by GMW Programme Board – eg Professionally Accredited Programmes
Curriculum and assessment design principles to be agreed, support resources developed and professional development support agreed for design teams.
Task Force Sponsor Groups to be established, responsible for mobilizing teams, supporting implementation
1. Academic sponsors responsible for: sourcing curriculum and assessment support for their team(s); confirming programme renewal schedule; supporting discipline leads; monitoring and reporting progress to GMW Programme Board
2. Administrative/Support Service Sponsors: adapt student support services, timetabling, policy, regulation and compliance, data insights
3. Enabling Function Sponsors: mobilise organizational change HR/IR capability, manage communications/media/ branding, IT support teams
GMW Programme Evaluation Scheme: integrated from the start.
Staff are encouraged and incentivised to develop scholarly approaches and contribute to institutional REF outputs

Students as partners will be engaged in the co-creation of the GMW.

Provide intentionally designed assessment enabled learning experiences based on TIRIAE principles and pedagogies that enhance and extend effective learning focusing on formative assessment and feedback for all students.

High quality learning and teaching, creativity, relevance, flexibility, and learning-focused formative assessment and feedback, delivered in intensive block teaching mode, are associated with enhanced student success, evidenced by improved grade outcomes and student progression and completion rates, and higher levels of overall student satisfaction with all aspects of their learning environment. GMU will deepen its commitment to embracing innovative approaches to learning and teaching that enhance student learning outcomes and adopt TIRIAE’s renewed focus on assessment enabled learning.

Authentic assessment that focuses on students using and applying knowledge and skills in real-life settings is a hallmark of the intensive block delivery model. More traditional forms of assessment, such as essays and examinations, have no specific application in most real-world settings and in similar fashion they do not feature in the GMW immersive block teaching mode. Rather, authentic assessment is preferred as it helps students contextualise their learning in real-world situations.

Implementation: Planning Principles and Actions:

Flipped classroom – no lectures. A flipped classroom approach allows the tutor to include a range of classroom activities, cocreating a learning environment that empowers students through authentic tasks and assessments.
Small-to-medium class sizes – Allowing the tutor the opportunity to get to know their students, to build an effective relationship with them, and to be highly responsive to their needs.
Student-focused – starting with learning outcomes that students need to know
Module content – lean and targeted
Team-based curriculum design – academic, professional staff, librarians, learning designers
Assessment enabled learning approach: Week 1: Low stakes assessment for early success.Week 2-5: developmental/nested assessment to foster depth of knowledge. All formative assessments completed/marked and feedback provided in a timely fashion to enable continuous learning.
No formal exam period (except where professional bodies require them) – formative assessment and feedback to become the norm: in-class assessment/tests/multi-choice quizzes used to check and verify learning and ensure timely feedback. Peer assessment and self-assessment used extensively.

All assessments will be designed to meet OfS and professional accreditation standards.

Advance the academic quality and management of programmes through the careful adoption of more rapid approaches to quality assurance and enhancement to support the University’s switch to a learner-centred block delivery model.

While the academic quality of programmes is paramount, so too is the need to consider more rapid approaches to innovative design to support the University’s switch to a block delivery mode. There is a strong argument that the mission to serve the modern student generation, including non-traditional and ‘widening participation’ cohorts, can be enhanced through the careful streamlining of regulatory and procedural processes for new learning programmes, especially their vital assessment elements.

The changes and reforms proposed below should lead us to consider what has been called ‘ a discourse of possibility’- which are things we ask of our students but sometimes ignore when examining ourselves and our practices. Engaged participation in curriculum and assessment development requires us to examine and reform what we do as taken-for-granted practices in learning and teaching, and in the processes and systems which facilitate this.

Implementation: Planning Principles and Actions:

Mitigating circumstances to be reviewed and brought in line with international best practice – including automatic approval for all eligible assignments.
Exceptions to be approved by GMW Programme Board – eg Professionally Accredited Programmes
No reduction in pass mark for late submissions
Model answers produced by academic staff for assessed module work.
Course validation regulations and procedures slimmed down to 3/4 consecutive days, based on Design Sprint Methodology -
1. DAY 1 Understand and Define what a graduate from this programme should be able to do.
2. Day 2 Sketch and Decide the new programme offering based on engagement with all stakeholders.
3. Day 3/4 Prototype and Validate the programme.
Examination boards to be streamlined – Boards to be scheduled for 1 hour (maximum) and documentation to be distributed to key members at least 3 working days prior to the Board meeting.
Competence-based Degree programmes – removing the need for grading students at Degree levels HE4 and HE5.
Option to ‘trail’ modules – students will have the ability to move between full & part time modes of study within their Degree.

The ‘decluttering’ and ‘freeing-up’ of our regulatory and procedural processes will support agile University development and management systems.

The Quality Transformation Unit will be delivering the Greater Manchester Way Training to Schools and Professional Services, schedule to follow. For more information please contact Jo Hornby j.hornby2@bolton.ac.uk