How to Map Your Degree

Curriculum Mapping

To run an accredited degree program with Woolf, the college team must align their programs with existing Woolf Licenses. Licensed degrees can only comprise courses, so the task is to appropriately package existing content into corresponding courses. Woolf's licensed degree courses are designed to be flexible, accommodating a wide range of topics. However, there may be instances where a match is not possible. In such cases, college teams can propose custom courses for potential credit exchange, but the ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) credits from these custom courses cannot exceed 50% of the degree.

For example, there are 5 courses marked with red rectangles that do not comply with Woolf's existing license, so they must be accredited in Switzerland.

There are few degree options available depending on the amount of issued credits:

• Award: 1 course.
• Postgraduate Certificate: 30 ECTS, a third of a full degree program.
• Postgraduate Diploma: 60 ECTS, two thirds of a full degree program.
• Postgraduate Degree: 90+ ECTS, full degree program.

Rules of programme design and architecture

• 1 ECTS = 25 total hours of learning, inclusive of contact hours, supervised placement and practice hours (during these hours the learner is supervised, coached, or mentored), self-study hours and assessment hours.
• At least 20% (5 hours for every ECTS) must be considered as contact hours.
  💡Note: In the case of online learning, synchronous and asynchronous learning activities (lectures/seminars/tutorials/participation in online forums/video-lectures and other learning activities), all of which must be under the direction and control of an instructor are considered as total contact hours.
• Group small courses (<25 hours) into larger modules, break long modules (>250 hours) into smaller modules (unless they are internships or projects).
• Maximum of 45 hours per week for ECTS credits. (So, for example, you can’t offer a 5 ECTS module that meets over 2 weeks).
• Batch modules into consistent sizes that will be exchangeable between degrees → generally all modules in a tier should be either 3 ECTS or 5 ECTS or 6 ECTS or 10 ECTS or 30 ECTS.
• Structure the entire degree. Typical programmes have these 2-3 tiers:
  • 750 hours - Foundation courses (e.g. student must take 10, 3 ECTS courses)
  • 750 hours - Topical courses
  • 750 hours - Big project/thesis

Specializations

As mentioned earlier, typical programs have 2-3 tiers. In the case of three tiers, the program can be designed so that tier 2 consists of courses that create specializations.

Adding specializations sets your degree apart from market competitors.

We can add specializations in two ways:

• Supplemental certificates (which can be done by Woolf);
• Degree title changes (which needs to be approved by regulators).

Supplemental certificates

Woolf recommends using supplemental certificates
to create specializations:

• Students prefer them because they can market themselves as generalists or specialists;
• Colleges prefer them because there is no cost to creating them, and
no wait time to launch;
• Regulators have approved Woolf’s ability to create supplemental certificates as part of degrees.

Advantages

• No added fee;
• New specializations in accredited degrees do not require regulatory approval – must be approved by Woolf’s academic team;
• Multiple supplemental certificates per degree are possible as add-ons.

Degree title specializations

It is also possible to have license specializations in the title of the degree.

Advantages

• You can add licensed specialisms
to the official degree certificate title;
• We have a list of existing specialisms on our website here.

Disadvantages

• Fees for the regulatory filings;
• 12-month wait time.

How to map your degree

1. Create a new spreadsheet, copy the target Woolf license there.

2. Try to match 1 or more of your learning modules to licensed courses, considering that:

• Covered topics need to correspond (at least broadly) to a title of a licensed course.
• You need to have enough of a workload.

3. Add courses that you weren't able to map reliably into specific tiers & mark them.

4. Make sure that you hit ECTS requirements and are able to map at least 50% of degree in ECTS to a license.

5. Specify specializations if applicable for courses.