We recently started work on a project to explore the presentation of the Invoiced at Course Level route to study for a postgraduate award. This user research and business analysis piece will help us understand how to best present this route to study in future.

During our work on the Degree Finder transformation project we noted that the taught postgraduate programmes (PGT) that offer an Invoiced at Course Level (ICL) route are challenging to present clearly on the programme page. Colleagues working in schools offering this route expressed frustration with the limited facility to promote courses.

To understand how to present this route more clearly, we could see that we would need to understand it in more detail. We recognised that it could overlap with other study options that the University offers, for example:

• Short online courses,
• Continuing Professional Development (CPD),
• Executive Education (ExecEd)

It was also clear that there might be overlaps and opportunities to collaborate with other initiatives across the University, for example the Curriculum Transformation Programme.

We proposed a dedicated short project to explore the area and started this off by inviting colleages from related areas to join us in a collaborative ‘brief-setting workshop’ in early September.

Setting the brief – initial workshop

We used the Lean Coffee format to collect and prioritise areas to explore in the short project. Colleagues shared information on the options the University currently offers for flexible study.

After the initial workshop we attempted to document what short course and flexible study options the University offers, and how they’re referred to, including:

• Continuing Professional Development,
• Executive Education,
• courses for academic credit,
• adult education,
• non-credit-bearing courses and
• the Invoiced at Course Level (ICL) route to a  taught postgraduate (PGT) award.

However this proved challenging. We discovered that we don’t have agreed, standardised terminology in this area and that different approaches are taken across the institution regarding what is offered, why and how.

It’s also unclear what the strategic rationale is for the ICL route to a PGT award. Colleagues shared different uses and implementations of the route, for example:

• A more flexible and affordable part-time study option than ‘traditional’ part-time PGT study’
  • Instead of paying a proportional, yet potentially substantial, amount at the start of an award you only pay for the course you’re currently taking.
  • This also allows students to fit part-time study into their lives more easily.
• A means to provide Continuing Professional Development without requiring a student to commit to applying for a full PG award.

We also discovered that we need to better understand the needs of staff who:

• provide and administer an ICL route,
• provide study for professional development,
• provide more flexible study formats.

Re-focusing the brief

It was clear that documenting what the University currently offers would need to be included as an activity in the project. We added it to the list of planned activities and re-focused the brief on the driver for the work. We plan to explore:

• How to present the ICL route more clearly.
• Whether presenting courses from a programme with an ICL route in the short online courses platform meets prospective student needs.
• Areas where offering the ICL route overlaps with other study options.
  • For example, the differing purpose of ICL programmes for CPD compared with those offering a more affordable and flexible route to study for a PGT award.
• CPD focused short online courses, including those aimed at executive education which are not bespoke.

A secondary goal for the project is to document what we learn on the current state, to surface and identify any current and possible future challenges.

Our aims are to identify:

• What the University currently offers, for which target audiences and for what purpose
• What terminology we use for the different options on offer
• Where students find these options

We don’t plan to explore:

• Bespoke courses created for executive education
• Adult education focused courses offered by the Centre for Open Learning

Documenting the current state is underway

We’ve already started to build a picture of the options the University offers for flexible study, the challenges and the terminology in use.

Here’s a question for you to consider – how do you define the following terms?  These are all currently used to describe different study options:

• Stackable
• Microcredentials
• Standalone
• Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
• Postgraduate Professional Development (PPD)
• Executive Education (ExecEd)
• Invoiced at Course Level (ICL)

These terms are all currently being used in different ways across the provision of flexible study options.

Looking at comparator institutions we can see that they use similar terminology. But what we can’t tell is whether their definitions match ours. However, we’ve already learned that we don’t all use these terms in the same way.

This comparison is still in progress with us considering:

Applications data

The ICL route compared to ‘traditional’ part-time

•  25%  of applications for part-time study for 2023/24 entry were for the ICL route
• This percentage has been consistently between 30 and 34% for all entry years going back to 2017/18

The ICL route by nationality and by domicile

Applications for the ICL route come overwhelmingly from overseas, for both nationality and domicile.

Next activities

We will continue to check in with our ICL stakeholder group over the coming months. These colleagues are providing valuable insight into how different areas of the University are operating in this area, and will help us to recruit students to interview in our upcoming research.

Ongoing activities

• Continue comparator review
• Continue documenting the current state
• Meet with colleagues for Curriculum Transformation to discuss opportunities to collaborate

Starting soon

• Identify who to invite to take part in user research, when to hold the sessions and begin recruitment
• Review data from research on the new Short Online Courses platform
• Arrange conversations with staff who administer ICL programmes
• Research session design

An update on these activities to the stakeholder group is planned for late October.

If you feel involvement in these updates would be relevant to your responsibilities, please get in touch with me.

Project timeline

Research will continue through to late November, followed by a period of analysis and synthesis.

We plan to present a summary of this project at an open-invite session in January 2025.

Exploring the Invoiced at Course Level (ICL) route to a postgraduate award / Future student online experiences by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0