CHES recognises the intense pressure that Covid-19 has put on educational institutes. We have therefore issued the following statement that applies to all our accredited programmes.
“We recognise that higher education institutions may need to make short-term changes to the curriculum and assessment of their accredited programmes. We have confidence in the rigour of our institutions to ensure that the necessary changes maintain academic standards.
Changes to the curriculum and assessment that do not impact the programme learning outcomes and will be contained within the academic year 2020/21 do not need to be reported to CHES and will not affect the programme’s accredited status.
If there are changes which will be in place following the end of this academic year, they may need to be reported to CHES. These include: significant changes to course content which exceed 25% of the syllabus; the reduction of science content to less than 50% of the syllabus; changes that affect the mapping of the programme against the ES3 Benchmark Statement; and any other changes that would trigger an institutional review of the programme.
We recognise that key criteria for accreditation, such as fieldwork, lab work, and work placements have been significantly affected by the on-going pandemic. We understand that there will likely be more emphasis on online resources and learning, including virtual field courses and remote lab work, and we support the use of innovative teaching and assessment methods to allow students to have similar experiences and to meet their learning outcomes.”
If you have any questions or concerns relating to your accreditation, or if there is anything else we can do to support you at this time, please reply to this email or phone the IES office on +44 (0)203 862 7484.