Centre for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching | Designed for inclusivity

Through its design, the curriculum will value, respect and provide all students with an equitable opportunity to participate in and succeed, regardless of prior attainment, background or individual learning requirements. The curriculum will ensure fair and positive student voice representation. The curriculum will create opportunities for all students to enhance their cultural awareness, literacy and practice within, eg, the Equality Act (2010), and intercultural competence to operationalise the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In embedding this principle, USW course teams reflect on questions such as:

How has inclusivity for all been considered and influenced the curriculum design in terms of learning, assessment and choice?
What opportunities do learners have to develop literacy and competence operating within appropriate equality and accessibility legislation?
How does the curriculum ensure fair and positive student voice representation?

A large lecture theatre in the Brecon Building on the Treforest campus

Two open day visitors are sat together at a table, looking at a programme of events.

two students in navy overalls looking up at the underneath of a plane

three members of the equality, diversion and inclusion team sitting at a table having an informal meeting, laughing and smiling

These reflections and review opportunities enable course teams to work towards building (when this principle is fully embedded) a course:

Which is truly accessible to all learners, values diversity and does not disadvantage any student, including all those with protected characteristics.
Which has been developed to enable learners to achieve to the best of their ability regardless of background or prior educational attainment.
Where assessment choice provides opportunities for learners to demonstrate and personalise what they have learnt and formative assessment opportunities are built into the curriculum at all levels.
Which provides activities that challenge single-world views, develops intercultural competence, promotes respect for others, and develops learners’ literacy and competence operating within appropriate equality and accessibility legislation.

Watch this video to find out more (6m 10s) NB: The videos below were recorded in 2021. Since when, the participants have since moved into different roles at USW.

A wheel with different headings relating to the curriculum design principles. Inclusivity is highlighted in dark blue.

A Short Guide, with a Checklist

To help you implement the 'Designed for Inclusivity' USW Curriculum Design Principle, we have produced a short guide providing you with its role in curriculum design and assessment; the USW context which applies to it; information about literature supporting this principle; links to further reading; and a checklist to help you identify how well the principle is embedded in your modules.

Download our guide to 'Designed for Inclusivity'

For further reading, literature informing our thinking around curricula designed for inclusivity includes, but is not limited to:

Barefoot, H. and de Sousa, S., 2019. University of Hertfordshire case studies within the Universities UK-NUS report: ‘Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Student Attainment at UK Universities:# CLOSINGTHEGAP’.

Campbell, P., Hawkins, C.D. and Osman, S., 2021. Tackling Racial Inequalities in Assessment in Higher Education: A multi-disciplinary case study.

Fornauf, B.S. and Erickson, J.D., 2020. Toward an inclusive pedagogy through universal design for learning in higher education: A review of the literature. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 33(2), pp.183-199.

Morris, C., Milton, E., & Goldstone, R. (2019). Case study: suggesting choice: inclusive assessment processes. Higher Education Pedagogies, 4(1), 435-447.

Nieminen, J. H. (2022). Assessment for Inclusion: rethinking inclusive assessment in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 1-19.

Tai, J., Ajjawi, R., & Umarova, A. (2021). How do students experience inclusive assessment? A critical review of contemporary literature. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1-18.

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