ID063 Humanities Year 1 Degree Pathway

The Idea

Offering an open Humanities Year 1 pathway for prospective students. On this programme, subject to timetabling constrains, students could choose a combination of ENG, HIS, FIL, MDS, Music, Creative Writing and Languages (with a limit of 2 Languages modules) modules in Year 1, and then would declare their chosen degree pathway before entering Year 2. 

Why This Idea Should Be Considered

This option would serve to distinguish Keele from competitors in offering an openly flexible option to prospective students who have not yet decided what they want to study at university. It would also advance Lord Lindsay's vision for Keele and the university's longstanding interdisciplinary ethos. Versions of this approach are widely, and effectively, implemented internationally, such as in the US. There would not be additional staffing costs, and with the closing of the Liberal Arts degree pathways, students who previously chose that degree (c. 8-10 per year in the early 2020s) could consider the open Humanities route [or the same route under a catchier name] in addition to other students who are undecided on the specific Humanities degree they want to pursue. A sizeable portion of initial Liberal Arts enrolees subsequently switched to a more specialised degree pathway at Keele, so this Humanities route would appeal to students who similarly did not want to commit to a particular specialisation at the beginning of their degree programme. 

Unlike the now-withdrawn Liberal Arts degrees, this open Humanities route would not have staffing implications; moreover, it avoids some of the key problems facing Liberal Arts recruitment, namely that many UK-based students did not know what ‘Liberal Arts’ means, and the requirement for staff members across a range of degree programmes to advertise the Liberal Arts degree option (with its fairly complex degree structure) at open days to prospective students who may not know about the existence of ‘Liberal Arts’ as a degree pathway. ‘Humanities Year 1’ [or a catchier variation of that name] is a lot simpler as a concept, and it promises the  

This target student group for this degree pathway differs significantly from those who would usually enrol on the foundation year. Attracting students previously drawn to Liberal Arts at Keele would benefit the university financially and intellectually, as the Liberal Arts degrees routinely attracted strong, curious students who excelled academically. Moreover, as the open Humanities pathway would only apply to year 1, and students would choose from modules run within a single faculty, it also avoids problems that contributed to the withdrawal of Liberal Arts, namely the reliance on cross-faculty and cross-degree programme collaboration (with Natural Sciences) to provide core teaching for the degree.  

How We Would Implement This Idea

This idea would not have staffing implications. Keele could offer open Humanities students choice of modules from the programmes listed above, subject to timetabling clashes and module exclusions (such as only taking one Y1 skills module). Once students pass Y1 120 credits, they would then enrol on one of the existing Keele degree pathways offered by the School. Keele could advertise this option to prospective students as part of the existing Humanities open day talks to offer a further option beyond the existing single honours and integrated degree pathways. In order to foster academic community among this cohort, enrolled students would be assigned to one academic mentor in the first instance (to extend to a handful of academic mentors with 5+ open Humanities mentees each depending upon enrolment). 

To manage the transfer of students from Level 4 to Level 5, there would need to be allowances made on existing Humanities degree programmes to permit the transfer of these students joining in Level 5. To ensure that these students have still developed the required skills for the degrees they enrol on for Level 5, students will only be able to enrol on a degree pathway for subjects in which they have taken and passed a L4 module. 

This proposal could integrate with the proposals provided in ID227 (‘A Distinctive Keele Degree’). It would provide a version of that proposal’s Option C for Humanities students by providing broad-based first-year provision before moving to more specialised study.

What Success Would Look Like

Success would mean gradually increasing recruitment from the old Liberal Arts recruitment levels to contribute to growing student numbers in Humanities. The degree would attract students in addition to those who would already choose to study at Keele, and they would then join a Humanities degree pathway.