This presentation discusses the role and purpose of a Course Director in a university and, based on personal experience, shares the benefits of taking on this critical leadership role.

1. Why become a Course Director?
Course Directorship at UL:
Engaging Students, Achieving
Excellence
Professor Nigel Healey
Interim Provost
17 November 2021

2. Overview
• What happens when football is cancelled
• What have the Romans ever done for us?
• Hat have Course Directors ever done for us?
• Key responsibilities
• Why become a Course Director?
• Summary
17/11/21
PADI: This rating is the highest and most respected
professional rating in recreational scuba diving. To become a
Course Director, you must earn a spot in a Course Director
Training Course (CDTC).

3. What happens when
football is cancelled
17/11/21

4. What have the Romans ever done for us?
17/11/21

5. What have Course Directors ever done for
us? (1)
• “This is one of the single most important roles in a faculty. Without a Course Director the
operationalization of the ‘student learning experience’ and ‘engaged learning’, two of the key
strategic imperatives of the University, are difficult to achieve. The CD is the academic
manager and point of contact for the programme. It is a differentiating role for the
development and success of courses. In many ways the CD is the engine that drives the
teaching activities of the University. It shapes the long term and the daily life of our
programmes, impacting all the students, teachers, and indirectly the companies in our
ecosystem.
• Course directors bring their expertise and experience directly to students and do so on a day
to day basis in a way that a Head of Department cannot. They are responsible for how the
student experiences not just the programme of study, but the department, and so it is from
this that departmental reputation is built. It is a crucial role, particularly in terms of recruitment
of students and promotion of courses. Students also tend to use CDs for welfare and other
issues. CDs are the on the ground academic supervisors of the programme, the de facto
student advisers, the contact points for parents, the recruitment committees for the
programme.”
• HOD quoted in Corcoran, D & Arkins, S (2015). Course Director Recognition.
17/11/21

6. What have Course Directors ever
done for us? (2)
• All right, but apart from:
• The operationalization of the ‘student learning experience’ and ‘engaged learning
• Being the academic manager and point of contact for the programme.
• Driving the teaching activities of the University
• Shaping the long term and the daily life of our programmes
• Being responsible for how the student experiences not just the programme of
study, but the department
• Supporting student welfare
• Acting as de facto student advisers
• Driving recruitment for the programme…….
• What have Course Directors ever done for us?
17/11/21

7. Key Responsibilities
Note: slides 7-21 from Dr Fergal O’Brien
ACADEMIC LEAD
• Figurehead
• Chair Course Board
• Teaching Teams Meetings
• Academic Queries (e.g., meetings with potential applicants)
MARKETING
• Marketing Collateral (e.g., recorded talks, content for web)
• Attending Events (e.g., where the CD presence is ESSENTIAL)
ADMINISTRATION
• Application Reviews (part of the student recruitment process)
• Interview? (there should be no need to interview in most cases, so don’t!)
• Offer/Reject (training required here)
• Convert
• Graduation Tasks
PASTORAL CARE
• Point of contact
• Student support (CD often directs to these)

8. ACADEMIC LEAD

9. Academic
Lead
• Figurehead – the “face” of the programme, not necessarily a
“specialist” in the discipline, as the role of CD should rotate,
and that will naturally mean the “expert” will not always be
CD.
• QUALITY – programmatic reviews, accreditation issues.
Huge tasks!
• Chair Course Board – an active and engaged course board
can ensure that the programme is interrogated as to its
content, relevance, innovation, marketability, etc.
• Teaching Teams Meetings – a trick one for CDs, especially
on interfaculty programmes. CDs are not line managers for
lecturers on their programmes. Social capital very important
here.
• Academic Queries (e.g., meetings with potential applicants)
– CDs should be available to deal with academic queries
around course content, assessment methods, etc. If course
web pages are optimised in terms of content, the number of
queries should fall significantly. CDs can be expected to
hold one-to-ones with applicants that “require” that as part of
their application.

10. MARKETING

11. Marketing
• CDs are academics. They are not salespeople or marketing experts. They can
play a role in recruitment but their inputs should be limited and scheduled well in
advance.
• Supports that would help with marketing, and reduce CD input, could include:
• Student ambassador programme that would automatically generate
testimonials, blogs, vlogs, career stories, etc.
• Experts in writing for the web that would take programme descriptions and
make them web and user friendly
• Faculty recruitment personnel or teams that could partner effectively with
Marcomms
• CDs should attend events where they are essential to that event. We often have
many CDs at events where many do not deal with a single query. This is highly
inefficient when we have excellent administrators that can handle a broad range
of queries and set up meetings between applicants and CDs, as required.
• The following slides look at the recruitment funnel and the role of CDs.

12. Brand
Building
Digital
Marketing &
Advertising
Recruitment Admissions
Conversion/
Nurturing
• Marcomms • Marcomms
• UL Global
• Faculties
• UL Global
• GPS
• AR
• UL Global
• GPS
• AR
• UL Global
• GPS
• AR
• Marcomms
• Faculties
Recruitment Funnel – Student Journey

13. Brand
Building
• The overall UL brand
is promoted through
Marcomms.
• CDs can build a
brand for their
programme, but
really that’s a
“reputation”.
• What are the USPs
for taught
postgraduate
programmes at UL?
Who determines
the messaging
around this?
Brand Building
• What are the key
branding messages
around UL?

14. Digital
Marketing &
Advertising
• CDs should not be
responsible for
digital marketing
and advertising.
They are academics.
• They should
however be
informed and
briefed on the
strategy.
• CDs might be able
to help with
developing
marketing
collateral, but
months in advance
of it being needed.
• CDs may be able to
identify more
appropriate ways
of advertising their
particular
programmes, e.g.,
industry
conferences, etc.
• In summary, CDs
can contribute
here, but they
should be
supporting the
efforts, not leading
them.
Digital Marketing & Advertising
• Marcomms runs
DM&A at UL, but
there are pockets of
activity in other areas
(e.g. UL Global).

15. Recruitment
• Marcomms and UL
Global operate at
the front end of
the recruitment
funnel.
• CDs review
applications and
make offers
• CDs should deal
with academic
queries and
engage in focused
and worthwhile
interactions with
applicants, e.g.,
one-to-ones
arranged by
recruiters.
• GPS and UL
Global work at
the end of the
recruitment
funnel, i.e.,
application ->
enroll
(conversion)
• ALL pre-
enrolment
communications
should come
through a single
CRM.
Recruitment

16. Admissions
• GPS and AR are
responsible for the
admissions
process. Offer
letters, accepts,
deferrals, pre-
communications,
induction (?), etc.
• CDs review
applications and
make offers
• Once a CD has
reviewed all
applications (in a
timely manner),
their next duty
should be to
welcome the
incoming cohort to
UL (bar very
focused/specific
conversion
activities)
Admissions

17. Conversion/
Nurturing
• GPS and UL Global
are responsible for
turning offers (and
particularly
accepts) into
enrolments
• The new CRM
(Radius) should
help with this.
• CDs may wish to
send programme-
specific info
(through GPS) as
part of conversion
process, e.g.,
welcome pack,
readings, etc.
Conversion/Nurturing

18. ADMINISTRATION

19. Administration APRC-related activities
Dissertation allocation and managing grading and quality.
Application Reviews (part of the student recruitment
process)
• Interview? There should be no need to interview in most cases, so
don’t! In my experience, you end up with the “same” class on
average, interviews or no interviews.
• Offer/Reject (training required here)
• The training piece is crucial here, to explain to CDs what an offer
actually means. An offer does not mean an enrolment.
Convert (GPS & UL Global)
• With better supports for CDs we can develop really strong
conversion content for applicants sitting on offers or applicants that
have accepted places (neither of whom are enrolments … yet!)
Graduation Tasks
• CDs will be involved in processing their cohort through graduation.

20. PASTORAL CARE

21. Pastoral
Care
Point of contact?
• Yes, but KBS, for example has a Postgraduate
Studies Office, where the administrative staff are
very often the first point of contact. Or the CD can
direct queries there.
Student support (CD often directs to these)
• CDs need to point students in the direction of
central support services. Although, student
induction should ensure that students know exactly
where to go when they encounter problems.
• There is no advisor system at postgraduate level,
so the CD is the default advisor to entire classes.
• A CD might be asked to write many references for
graduating students.
• Queries on stayback visas often end up with CDs –
again international students need to know what to
do and where to go on these.
Chaperoning on international field trips

22. Why become a
Course
Director?
17/11/21
To make a difference, to drive the
development of the course, create
transformation learning opportunities for
students and build a supportive learning
community of academic staff and students
To be part of a departmental team, working
together and building relationships, while
strengthening connections across every part
of the university. To belong.
To get promoted. To develop a record of
academic service and contribution hat will
be recognised and rewarded through
advancement.
Caution: motivations are not mutually
exclusive.

23. Summary
25/08/21
Managing the vitality of the
course
Designing and revising curriculum, academic
content, pedagogy, delivery, assessment, continuous
quality enhancement, meeting graduate attributes,
supporting student recruitment
Leading module leaders Ensuring module leaders work together to ensure
course is internally coherent and more than the sum
of the parts
Supporting and engaging with
students
Listening to the student voice, supporting individual
students and being the face of the course
Working with employers Ensuring that the curriculum is relevant and the
design is responsive to change employer needs
Liaising with accreditation
agencies or professional
bodies
Being the contact person for accrediting bodies and
a champion for accreditation standards within the
university