ID091 Re-imagining our Global Challenge Pathways

The Idea

Today’s graduates face tough competition for employment. Universities are facing an existential crisis driven by financial instability, stagnant tuition fees, rising costs and the need to prioritise the student experience and value proposition (i.e., why a student should choose one University over another). 

To address these challenges, we propose that Keele’s flagship interdisciplinary offer, the Global Challenge Pathways project is re-imagined, rebranded, expanded and offered to all Keele undergraduate students as an embedded, integrated part of their degree programme across all three years of UG study. Global challenges (e.g., social justice, power and conflict, health inequalities, climate change, enterprise, global citizenship) directly impact our diverse community of students, especially those from widening participation backgrounds, international students, and students from the local and regional area. Our Global Challenges Pathways (GCP) provide a safe space for students to actively engage and debate these issues and offer opportunities to work with local community organisations and industry to affect positive change in society. Our focus on topical, real world challenges, that require interdisciplinary approaches to solve, helps better prepare graduates for employment where they will work with different disciplines and require skills to integrate different approaches into everyday problem solving.  

Approximately 75% of Keele’s UG programmes currently offer students the option to choose a GCP, with 350, 200 and 100 students currently studying one of our five pathways at Levels 4, 5 and 6, respectively. We are keen to build on this early success and expand the number of students studying GCP, retain more students from Level 4 through Level 5 and into Level 6, and increase the number of programmes offering GCP. Shifting from an optional to an embedded model, across all three years of study, would help differentiate Keele’s education offer from our competitors as all our students would graduate with a broad-based, interdisciplinary experience formally recognised through an enhanced degree title, as is current practice for students choosing to study GCP. Our offer, and the ‘value added’ it brings, would need to be pitched and communicated to students clearly at open days, Applicant Visit Days and through our website and programme specifications. The current drop-off in the numbers of students choosing to study a GCP module from through Level 5 and into Level 6 may be indication that students do not always recognise the value-added or benefits associated with GCP.

Why This Idea Should Be Considered

Our graduates need to be able to demonstrate their ability to work across disciplinary boundaries and to work with colleagues from different backgrounds, and with different views and perspectives, to solve complex problems in the workplace. 

GCP was developed to give students the opportunity to: 

1. Work with a range of international experts and employers to develop their skills in problem solving, leadership, collaboration and team working 
2. Work on real-world projects, produce creative outputs of direct relevance to business and industry, and learn how to drive change in society 
3. Enhance their digital and creativity skills for the workplace. 
4. Link their studies to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which offer a blueprint for a more sustainable future 

Undertaking GCP study helps to differentiate our graduates from those of our competitors. Keele is the only HEI in the UK to offer such a structured, interdisciplinary offer and we propose that this becomes a core part of our curriculum offer at Keele – the first stage of a medium-term strategy to reimagine what a Keele-degree looks like and what our students achieve during their time at Keele. 

How We Would Implement This Idea

Our GCP offer is now a well-established model operating successfully across all three Faculties at Keele. GCP is managed through a Programme Management Committee, which oversees consistency and quality across all five pathways and individual modules in line with existing University processes (e.g., module review, annual programme reviews etc), as well as driving forward curriculum enhancements. The success of Keele’s GCP offer has been externally disseminated and used as inspiration for other institutions looking to develop similar offerings. We have continuously reviewed our curriculum model over the last three years considering student and staff feedback and now feel in a strong position to re-imagine and scale-up this model of interdisciplinary study across the institution to the benefit of our students. The existing curriculum model is built with flexibility and agility in mind but could be further adapted to: (a) offer new themes/pathways of interest (e.g., power and conflict, law, religion and ethics, Generative AI and big data, wellbeing and resilience), (b) provide more flexibility (e.g., the ability for students to ‘mix and match’ modules of interest), (c) offer fewer pathways but with opportunities for students to tailor (e.g.,) assessment to their areas of interest or, (d) provide more explicit focus on wellbeing, resilience and our students place in a highly uncertain world. We could also put strategies in place to encourage students to study a GCP that is distinct from their chosen degree subject. At present, there is a tendency for students to choose the GCP that is most closely aligned to their ‘home’ discipline. For example, ~60% of students studying the Climate Change and Sustainability Global Challenge pathway are students from Geography, Geology and Environmental disciplines.  

Whilst some subjects at Keele are subject to more stringent Professional, Statutory and Regulatory Body (PSRB) requirements, experience has shown that direct, constructive conversations with PSRBs about what GCP is and what we are seeking to achieve often results in very positives outcomes (i.e., PSRBs view GCP as a positive once they fully understand what is involved). PSRBs tell us what skills, knowledge and core competencies need to be covered, they do not require us to delivery teaching in specific ways or, with some minor exceptions, use specific types of assessment. One key challenge to address if this idea was further developed is around staff capacity and resourcing requirements. The original vision for GCP was that modules would be delivered by interdisciplinary teaching teams however; the current reality is that GCP modules rely on a small number of dedicated individuals for successful delivery. This staffing model is not sustainable in a situation where the numbers of students on GCP increased significantly.

What Success Would Look Like

• Improved graduate outcomes: All our graduates will be able to demonstrate their ability to work across disciplinary boundaries to solve complex problems in the workplace. 
• Sustainably Literate Graduates: Our Global Challenge Pathways are underpinned and informed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) enabling all students to graduate with the skills to analyse and solve problems through a ‘sustainability lens’. 
• Differentiation from our competitors: Keele is currently the only UK HEI to offer such a structured, interdisciplinary offer, underpinned by the UNSDGs and spanning all three years of UG study. 
• Improved Student Recruitment: We have evidence that up to 5% of current students taking GCP at Level 4 (~15 students) chose to study at Keele because of the opportunity to study a GCP. This represents ~£440,500 of additional FTE income. Further promotion of GCP as a ‘distinctive Keele offer’ and a key part of our value proposition is likely to further enhance recruitment. 
• Clear value proposition and enhanced value added: Students studying GCP all graduate with an enhanced degree title (“with achievement in XXX”), which feedback tells us is something students value highly.