Holistically redesigning a university’s curriculum is a huge yet necessary task if we want to meet the challenges facing institutions and graduates. Given societal and employment shifts, and financial and operating pressures, now is the time to have university-wide conversations about educational values and curriculum design. The real danger is not acting.
Generative AI is already reshaping learning, education and assessment, and the skills that will become valuable. A curriculum that does not engage seriously with these changes risks leaving students underprepared when they graduate.
Employability is top of mind. As the Milburn report indicates, employers want graduates who can think analytically and creatively, and who can use sound judgement to solve problems. University study continues to be the best route to develop these competencies, whether through traditional degree provision or flexible learning through summer schools, short courses and executive education.
As my institution celebrates its 200th birthday, we have taken this opportunity to reflect and to reimagine our curriculum. Running since 2022, the Programme Excellence Project (PEP) spans our entire undergraduate and taught postgraduate portfolio – nearly 8,000 modules and 1,100 courses. From September 2027, students arriving at UCL will study a curriculum that has been purposefully redesigned with their future in mind.
Below I offer practical strategies for others considering curriculum review, based on my experience of leading this process at scale.
1. Develop your review principles collaboratively
Years of incremental changes and course growth can lead to a curriculum that lacks a clear purpose. Consider from the outset how you will seek staff and student perspectives on what that purpose is, and what criteria will be used in decision-making when the review stage gets under way.
For example, we gathered insights through a series of curriculum conversations using a World Café format, where colleagues and student representatives fed into draft principles in a relaxed setting. We then finalised five curriculum design principles, which shaped our guidance and review framework. Our published curriculum landscape studies also helped people understand the case for curriculum review.
You can set the institutional direction centrally but leave disciplinary decisions with the people closest to the curriculum. Course and module teams should ask whether the existing curriculum is still genuinely current. Does it reflect the research frontier of the discipline and associated industries? Does it prepare students for a changing world?
Our Higher Education Development and Support Institute hosted workshops, supported projects developed with students and worked with academics to create pedagogic resources on, for example, sustainability and equality, diversity and inclusion.
2. Plan assessment strategies from the beginning
Early on, make sure that assessment is aligned with intended learning outcomes. This is an opportunity for colleagues to question whether assessment strategies support learning and skills development, and to make changes if appropriate.
Protecting academic integrity is another important consideration, especially in the context of AI. Curriculum review helps staff explore appropriate uses of AI for learning and assessment in different disciplines. To support this, we published guidance around AI use for different categories of assessment. Early in 2026, we also facilitated university-wide AI conversations alongside our curriculum review, which we are taking forward as part of our AI Education programme.
3. Offer realistic choice and consider delivery
A degree must offer structured, realistic study options that students can understand. Structure matters because learning should build deliberately and incrementally, supporting students to deepen their knowledge. We have supported this by replacing a web of confusing pathways with 297 post-enrolment specialisms and curating elective module choice.
Consideration of curriculum delivery is equally important. Otherwise, we risk disappointing students and overwhelming colleagues who teach and those who manage essential services such as timetabling.
- Spotlight guide: Course design for a new age
- Co-creation of curricula with students: a case study
- How to build an inclusive curriculum design toolkit
4. Embed employability
Every student should have opportunities to develop their employability within their course. If not in place already, you could create employability-focused space within the curriculum so this activity does not feel bolted on.
We are doing this by supporting staff to incorporate our pillars of employability into learning activities. By partnering with careers liaison tutors, which every department must have, we plan dedicated support and opportunities linked to their curriculum and the skills students want to develop.
Alongside this, our ExtendED Learning programme in the summer term provides hands-on ways for students to apply their learning to real-world problems and build interdisciplinary skills, connections and confidence. The programme’s learning themes – including “Supercharge your career” and “Innovate and create” – deliberately complement the taught curriculum.
5. Navigate disagreement effectively
A university-wide curriculum review will prompt rich but also challenging conversations. At times, you will need to navigate disagreement, negotiate compromises and manage a pace of change that feels too fast for some and too slow for others. You might find that a directional, rather than a prescriptive, approach can enable different academic units to embed the same core principles.
For us, diverse views from across disciplines have proved essential in the progression and success of our curriculum review.
Whole-institution curriculum reform is inevitably complex. Our experience has shown that the answer isn’t to prescribe a single model from the centre, but nor is it enough to ask every programme to review itself independently. Common principles, strong evidence and institutional support can provide the framework, while academics and students bring the disciplinary expertise and experience needed to make meaningful change.
Perhaps the most important lesson is not to wait until a curriculum is failing before asking whether it remains fit for purpose. Creating space to ask what students need to learn, how they should learn it and what kinds of graduates we want them to become is valuable work.
Kathryn Woods is pro vice-provost (education – student academic engagement) at UCL.
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