Curriculum management in a post-COVID world

The financial impacts to universities due to COVID go beyond the operating costs of pivoting towards online learning and remote working to the loss of traditional revenue streams such as government financial assistance and grants, student fees and charges, and industry investment through consultancy and contracts. This has forced universities to radically overhaul the way they see and do business. Not only are they seeking cost savings, but they are looking towards innovative systems and technology that they can employ to give them the competitive advantage and attract revenue.

The task that now lies before universities is to find ways to transform their business into one that is flexible, efficient, and appealing to the modern student—without compromising on quality or governance.

In recent years, universities have begun to identify improvements to curriculum management as a strategic business imperative, often linking it to success in their strategic plans. The pandemic has intensified this discussion, pushing the need to improve curriculum management capabilities to the forefront.

Through discussions with our clients, prospective clients, and broader market intelligence, we have identified some reasons why the business case for addressing curriculum management processes and technology solutions has strengthened.

• The ability to support nimble curriculum governance and change-making agility, has moved from ‘opportunity’ to ‘necessity’.
• Online access to collaborative curriculum management tools is needed to support remote working and leverage productivity and flexibility gains.
• Students are seeking more options, more flexibility, more information to inform their decisions, and more autonomy to plan their studies. This has renewed focus on supporting students to plan their study, driving demand for sophisticated curriculum data management and mapping models, and the ability to communicate this information to students in a digestible way.
• Opportunities to bolster domestic student recruitment exist through new curriculum offerings and exploration of the market demand for micro- and stackable credentials.
• There is a demand for solutions which enable rapid response to changing market conditions and which integrate curriculum information with the curriculum-specific marketing content designed to engage prospective students.
• Identifying potential efficiencies, whilst retaining the academic integrity of the student experience, is driving demand for comprehensive data sets, an ability to understand complex structural relationships within the curriculum, and the ability to subject such data to systematic analysis.

Our CourseLoop Platform supports an incremental, value-building approach to curriculum management and currently offers six modules that can be combined into solution packs. Our method of implementation is tried and tested—ready to support your business needs.

If you are ready find out how you can strengthen your university’s curriculum management capabilities with a purpose-built technology solution, then get in touch to learn more or request a product demonstration.