uwl planning your assignment

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Plan your writing

Interpret your assignment.

Planning how you approach your writing will make sure that you understand the task, can manage your time, and present a researched, structured and focused assignment.

Before you start writing, you need to understand what type of writing you are required to produce. For example, you might be asked to produce a report, an essay, an annotated bibliography or a literature review. This will shape how you will prepare, research and write your assignment. Take time to understand the conventions of each type of assignment and what is expected of you.

Understand instructional words

Instructional verbs in the assignment task will indicate how to plan your approach. Choose the instructional words that you have been given below to reveal what they mean.

Instructional verbs

Examine an issue in close detail and break it into its constituent parts. Look in depth at each part, consider the evidence, and show you understand the relationship between them.

Decide on the importance or usefulness of something and give reasons and evidence for your decision.

Identify similarities and differences between two or more things, problems or arguments. Draw a conclusion about which (if either) you think is preferable or more convincing.

Outline the meaning of a word, concept or theory as it is used in your discipline. In some cases it may be necessary or desirable to examine different possible, or often used, definitions.

Present factual information about something, using appropriate evidence to support your description.

Examine the arguments and the evidence to support them. Consider different sides of the issue and weigh up the implications of each argument.

Make an appraisal of the worth of something, an argument or a set of beliefs, in the light of its validity or value. This does involve making your own judgements, but they must be supported by an evidenced argument and justification.

Explain or clarify something using evidence, diagrams, figures, or case studies.

Provide adequate reasons for a decision or a conclusion by supporting it with sufficient evidence and argument; answer the main objections that are likely to be made to it.

Summarise the main features or the general principles of a subject, topic or theory.

Provide a thorough examination of a topic. You may be asked to draw your own conclusions.

To what extent

Explore and present the argument(s) for a particular topic and state the degree to which you agree with them.

Accordion 1

Sample accordion 1

Adapted from: Greetham, B. 2018. How to write better essays . 4th ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Scope and focus

Look at the assignment task to identify whether there is a specific aspect of the topic that you are being asked to focus on. For example:

• Is the topic or question limited to a certain time period, region, or group of people?
• Are you being asked to consider a particular angle (for example, political, social, economic aspects of the topic)?

If the assignment task does not include information about the scope or limitations of the topic, you should choose these yourself. Think about what key issues have been covered in your module and whether you could use any of these to produce a focused answer to the question.

If something in the assignment brief is unclear, check with your module leader as soon as possible before starting to plan your answer.

Watch this short video on how to plan and get started with your assignment.

Define your purpose and reader

The next step before writing is to clearly define the purpose of the writing and the audience.

Most formal academic writing at university is set by, and written for, an academic tutor or assessor. There should be clear criteria against which they will mark your work. Your tutor may ask you to write for different audiences such as a lay audience or your peers, so make sure you know who your intended audience is before you start writing.

Once you have a clear idea of what is required for your assignment, you can start to plan what you are going to write.

NCI LIBRARY

Academic writing skills guide: planning your assignments.

• Key Features of Academic Writing
• The Writing Process
• Understanding Assignments
• Brainstorming Techniques
• Planning Your Assignments
• Thesis Statements
• Writing Drafts
• Structuring Your Assignment
• How to Deal With Writer's Block
• Using Paragraphs
• Conclusions
• Introductions
• Revising & Editing
• Proofreading
• Grammar & Punctuation
• Reporting Verbs
• Signposting, Transitions & Linking Words/Phrases
• Using Lecturers' Feedback

There may be a temptation to skip the planning stage, especially when deadlines are approaching and you are keen to get on with researching but planning has multiple benefits.

• Make a rough outline plan - the plan begins with your own interpretation of the question; this initial plan helps you order your ideas and focus your reading
• If you really know nothing at all about the topic, some initial skimming and browsing through recommended readings or your lecturer’s course material can provide a few ideas.
• Once you have an initial plan, further familiarise yourself with all relevant module content and sources posted on your Moodle page. These resources have been specifically chosen by your lecturer to help you with your coursework so using these will help you refine your plan and make writing your assignment easier.

Before you start searching the library for resources or information, you need to have some idea of what you are looking for - note down all the questions you can think of that might relate to your assignment title and criteria and list some keywords around the topic you need to research. By taking time to properly understand the assignment title or question and brainstorming for initial ideas, it can help you make informed decisions about what you need to read for a particular assignment.

In this way, you can decide what information you need and then start gathering it. If left unplanned, the reading stage can swallow up huge amounts of time. Making intelligent decisions, based on your initial planning, about which sources to target, can help you to avoid spending time reading less relevant, inappropriate, or even completely irrelevant material. You will be much more efficient in your reading and your research if you have some idea of where your argument is headed. You can then search for evidence for the points in your tentative plan while you are reading and researching

Communications from the Library:  Please note all communications from the library, concerning renewal of books, overdue books and reservations will be sent to your NCI student email account.

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Assignment Writing: Planning

• Following the Brief
• Researching
• Reading Tips
• Writing Tips
• Writing a First Draft
• Proofreading and Editing
• Formatting Assignments
• Assignment Submission
• Using Feedback

Planning is the key to writing a good assignment. Taking the time to plan your assignment will make it easier to understand what you are doing , ensure you are doing everything you are being asked to do, and help you achieve the task quicker . This guide introduces you to a range of planning examples.

What should I do when planning?

There are two main things to think about when planning .

Create a structure for your assignment. Your assignment sheet can help you do this. 

We recommend using a writing frame (there is an example on this page) or a graphic organiser

When you know what you need to do, create a time plan. We recommend using a time planner

These plans might change as you move through the process and learn more. That's ok. If that happens, simply adjust your plan as needed. 

 For tips on planning your time, visit our  Time Management guide

Planning your time

It's important to think about all tasks involved in the assignment writing process, and how long those tasks might take you.

Ask yourself, how much time do I need to complete all of the tasks?   This will be different for everyone. You might need more time for researching, while someone else might need more time for writing. 

When you know what you need to do, create a time plan. We recommend using a time planner.

Check out this video to learn how to plan your time around the tasks you need to complete. Then download the planning template below to help you plan your time from start to finish.

• Assignment planning template Try this template from Melbourne University to set deadlines for completing tasks within your assignment. Adapt the template to include the different tasks you have to do for your specific assignment.
• Stages of assignment writing from start to finish

Essay planning and writing templates

State Library Victoria includes several different templates to help you with different parts of your assignment planning and writing. 

• Understanding the question
• Essay plan template
• Organising essay ideas
• Note-taking ideas
• Bibliography (Referencing) template

How to write an essay plan (7 simple steps) by Helpful Professor

Structure your assignment with a writing frame

A writing frame allows you to organise your tasks or ideas into sections and put your ideas into a logical order. 

Do you remember the assignment brief from the previous page? Below we show you how you can organise the tasks into sections.

Written Assignment (Summative) -  Te Tiriti o Waitangi in Aotearoa New Zealand

Due date: 12 October

Word count: 1200 (+/-10%)

Some students like to add an extra column to their writing frame so they can write what they learn straight into their plan.

• Click here to download a writing frame template

Take a moment

Take a moment - It's your turn to plan your assignment.

• What is the purpose of the assignment?
• What do I have to do?
• How am I being marked?
• What information do I want to include?
• When is my assignment due?
• When do I need to start working on my assignment?
• How long do I need for the different stages?
• How long should I give myself to complete it?

Image citation: Possessed Photography. (2019, September 8).  Rerouting  [Photograph]. Unsplash.  https://unsplash.com/photos/0La7MwJhSyo

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Using writing assignments

A page within center for advancing teaching and learning (catl).

Writing Emphasis courses and Writing-in-the-Major programs use writing assignments as a means of accomplishing course and program goals. Students have informal and formal writing experiences.

The term informal writing , also known as "writing-to-learn," refers to writing activities intended primarily to facilitate or develop students' understanding and thinking . Writing-to-learn activities are a necessary complement to formal writing in that a major cause of poor formal writing is poor understanding of the subject matter. In terms of a student's intellectual development, writing-to-learn may be even more important than formal writing since writing-to-learn serves as a vehicle through which students build their understanding of subject matter. During the writing-to-learn process, the main focus is on making sense of the material and  not  on communicating it in a specific format to an audience. Note that with writing-to-learn the focus in on ideas not on the formal qualities of writing such as correctness, grammar, spelling, formatting, etc.

At a Glance

Purposes of Writing-to-Learn Assignments

• to help students understand and learn
• critical thinking skills (e.g., analysis, synthesis)
• integration of new information with students' prior knowledge
• affective/psychic development
• careful reading
• class discussion
• to help students discover and formulate problems
• to help students develop problem-solving strategies and skills
• to allow and encourage students to raise questions and concerns
• to sharpen student responses to their academic experiences
• to help faculty monitor student progress through the course

Examples of Writing-to-Learn Assignments

• field or laboratory notes
• reading notes (summaries, analyses, outlines, reactions)
• anticipatory reading notes (preparation for reading)
• research notes
• reactions to a speaker or film
• learning logs or journals
• listing topics for papers, discussion, or research
• explaining a task or assignment
• no-grade (or no-name) quizzes
• writing in preparation for discussion
• exploring concepts
• imaginary dialogue (with a theorist? between opposed theorists?)
• process or progress reports
• instructor/student written dialogue
• e-mail & electronic conferences (especially, student to student dialogue)

Methods for Handling Writing-to-Learn Assignments

• Students collect in a notebook or folder to be seen by the instructor N times during the semester and/or
• Instructor collects during class for immediate feedback
• read & comment
• selectively read & comment
• evaluate for engagement & effort
• check that it has been done
• ask for an assignment to be read aloud in class
• ask students to read & comment on each other's work
• read & discard
• collect & discard

Using Informal Writing in the Classroom

To illustrate the nature of writing-to-learn, consider the following classroom episodes.

In the middle of a class period, just after explaining an important idea, the instructor pauses and says, "All right, let's stop and think about this for a moment. Does anyone have any questions or comments?" The room is silent and eventually one or two hands go up. Students' questions focus on minor details they want clarified. The instructor answers these and then moves on to the next segment of the class.

Consider the same classroom situation, but this time after the instructor completes the explanation, she pauses and says, "All right, let's stop and think about this for a few minutes. Here's what I want you to do. Take out a piece of blank paper. Don't put your name on it. Now in the next three minutes I want you to answer this question." The instructor poses a question related to the concept she just explained. Students write for a few minutes, and then the teacher interrupts, "Okay, now, even though you may not be completely done with your thought, turn to the person next to you and explain your responses to each other." After several minutes of discussion by the student pairs, the teacher interrupts again and asks for volunteers to give their answers to the question. Quite a few hands go up, and the instructor selects four students to explain their ideas. As they do so, the teacher emphasizes essential points and helps clarify misunderstandings.

In the first scenario, the instructor stops to give students an opportunity to ask questions or comment on the topic. However, the opportunity typically produces fairly low level student responses. And this is actually to be expected. Some research indicates that students do not reflect on the material in these situations, but simply wait for someone to ask a question so the instructor can answer it and then move on. In contrast, the second scenario illustrates how writing-rather than provoking them to await an answer-will actually engage students in thinking about the course material in substantive and sustained ways.

Note how the writing episode contributes to students' learning. First, writing a response engages students in taking stock of what they understand and, possibly, what they still do not understand. Second, talking about their responses with a classmate provides an additional opportunity to clarify and extend their understanding of the material. For the act of explaining an idea to another person involves articulating the relationships and connections among facts and ideas. Moreover, listening to another student's explanation creates an opportunity to compare one's own understanding with a different version. And third, discussing their responses in class externalizes students' thinking so the instructor can take note of misconceptions, offer alternative views, and highlight ideas that students still do not seem to grasp.  In effect, the apparently simple writing activity prompts knowledge building activities about the subject.

This example illustrates a key point- writing can be a successful vehicle for learning if it is used strategically to engage students in ways of thinking about the subject that lead to deeper understanding . It is not writing per se that matters but how students interact with the material through writing  that matters. Students develop understanding when they explain, when they apply knowledge to new problems or situations, when they develop an interpretation or perspective, when they analyze, when they evaluate, when they integrate and synthesize ideas.

However, it is important to note that not all writing activities involve students in making sense of the subject matter. Taking notes, for example, can be a rote learning exercise that does little to promote understanding. And, writing assignments that primarily involve simple recall of facts and ideas do not necessarily build students' understanding of the material.

In a nutshell,  effective writing-to-learn activities are sense making activities  that involve students in making connections among disconnected facts and ideas, discerning relationships among ideas, relating new information to what one already knows, applying concepts and theories-whatever actively engages the student in developing understanding.

Examples of Writing-to-Learn Activities that Promote Understanding

Writing-to-learn activities can be used in a number of ways — before, during, and after class. They can be short and unrelated to one another or linked into a series that builds cumulative understanding of the course material over the entire semester. Most importantly, their use depends upon instructors' goals for student understanding. To design them effectively, an instructor must remember that these activities are tools that serve two major functions: First and foremost, writing-to-learn engages students in making sense of the course material. Second, writing-to-learn can be used to externalize students' thinking, providing the instructor with information about what and how students understand the subject matter. Consider these examples:

Writing is most likely to be an effective learning tool when it engages students in making sense out of the subject matter and when it helps students work through conceptual pitfalls, misconceptions, and problems. However, not all writing activities are equally appropriate for every discipline, instructor, and situation. And this is why it is important for instructors to analyze how students learn or fail to learn the subject you teach. We believe the analysis will help you identify key learning problems and the places in your courses where writing-to-learn can be useful. And perhaps more important, the analysis will help you design effective activities to promote learning with understanding.

Informal Writing as a Thinking Tool

As teachers, we all strive to foster students' understanding of important concepts, ideas, and skills. Yet a large body of research indicates that students often acquire little more than a passing familiarity of our subjects. Surely, this is not satisfactory — particularly when there are solutions to the problem. We contend that writing, when used strategically, can promote learning with understanding; but designing assignments that lead to understanding requires careful thought. There are, after all, plenty of ways that writing can lead to little more than rote learning. This occurs when students perceive writing assignments as busy work or when assignments merely ask students to transcribe ideas. In order to use writing to foster learning with understanding, it is important to consider several interrelated issues:

• Determine what is worthy of understanding  . We all strive for something more than superficial understanding or surface learning in our students; but students encounter far more information than they can possibly digest. There is good evidence that when students are deluged with information, they resort to rote learning strategies.  Rather than try to make sense of the material, they try to memorize it.  We do not oppose exposing students to a lot of information, but at the same time we cannot expect students to understand all of it deeply. To deal with this quintessential problem of the Information Age, the instructor must first recognize the difference between having information and understanding information within a conceptual or theoretical construct. Then, you must determine which ideas are central to understanding and which are secondary. We believe that instructors need to make critical distinctions between ideas students should be familiar with and those that should become part of their enduring understanding of the subject, just as they must make distinctions between which information is crucial to understanding and which is secondary.
• Engage students in performances of understanding  . Students demonstrate their understanding in complex activities in which they use knowledge to accomplish larger goals such as conducting an analysis, applying new knowledge to solve problems, articulating an argument, making a case, developing a position, interpreting a theory or text. Writing-to-learn activities should be viewed as "performances of understanding" in which students do not simply demonstrate their grasp of the subject but advance it further. For example, when students are asked to explain an idea, they need to consider how various parts of the concept or concepts are related to one another. The act of finding relationships and connections among ideas is a sense making activity-it is an act of understanding. So the process of explaining not only externalizes students' understanding, it is a knowledge building activity as well.
• Address difficulties in understanding the subject matter . Writing-to-learn can play a key role in developing students' understanding of difficult material. In all fields, students encounter persistent problems, difficulties, stumbling blocks, and misconceptions as they try to understand the subject. Instructors can use specific problem areas as the bases for designing writing exercises and assignments to help students overcome persistent difficulties.

Writing-to-Learn Resources

Examples of assignments from the WAC Clearinghouse:

• The reading journal
• Generic and focused summaries
• Annotations
• Response papers
• Synthesis papers
• The discussion starter
• Focusing a discussion
• The learning log
• Analyzing the process
• Problem statement
• Solving real problems
• Pre-test warm-ups
• Using Cases
• What counts as a fact?
• Believing and doubting game
• Analysis of events
• Project notebooks
• The writing journal

Additional Resources

• The Muddiest PointAnn Carlson, M.Ed., clearly and articulately describes the 'muddiest point' classroom assessment technique. Considered by many to be the simplest classroom technique presented by Angelo and Cross, it can also be incredibly illustrative of what is most important to address in a course. In writing the script for this module, Ms. Carlson culled the most succinct explanations and useful strategies for incorporating this assessment method into courses.
• Using Concept Mapping in Your ClassesDr. Karen Rohrbauck Stout, an associate professor at Western Washington University, has used concept mapping and mind mapping since she was an undergraduate, and now incorporates this assessment technique to improve her teaching in her own college classroom. Students and instructors alike will find her approach to concept mapping fun, efficient, and most of all, an effective learning strategy.
• Concept Mapping Software Concept maps are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge. They include concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes of some type, and relationships between concepts indicated by a connecting line linking two concepts. Words on the line, referred to as linking words or linking phrases, specify the relationship between the two concepts.
• Overview of Writing to Learn (PDF download) Chapter Five from Reference Guide to Writing Across the Curriculum (2005) by Bazerman et al. "In recent years, the writing to learn movement has continued to migrate from general approaches to discipline-specific studies of the relation between writing and learning."

Writing to communicate, which we call " formal writing ," is an essential academic and professional skill. But how do students' undergraduate experiences help them develop advanced writing competence? Since scholarly and professional writing are grounded in the discourse conventions of each discipline, we should look to the academic disciplines to play a key role in developing writing competence, assuring that learning to write well is an integral part of the student's education .

Of course, writing competence, which develops over a long period of time, neither begins nor ends at the university. But the university experience--which should be a significant period of intellectual development--can and should be a significant opportunity for developing strong writing skills. Our aim is to help faculty establish programs that support the long-term development of students' writing competence . We believe that students learn to write well when they:

• understand the kinds of writing expected of them,
• internalize the criteria that define good writing,
• experience guided practice in which their writing is shaped through a process of revision and editing, thus internalizing an efficient and effective composing process,
• learn to compose with a strong awareness of disciplinary conventions and the needs, knowledge, and attitudes of their audiences, and
• become progressively better at self assessment. 

Purposes of Formal Writing Assignments

• to give students opportunities to give form to and demonstrate the knowledge and the intellectual skills they have acquired
• to acquaint students with the discourse conventions of a particular discipline or intellectual community
• to allow students guided opportunities to practice those conventions

Types of Formal Writing Assignments

• scholarly papers: research reports, review articles, critical essays
• professional writing: reports; proposals; memos; essays, articles, and instructions for a lay audience; letters to the editor; editorials; brochures; critiques & reviews
• academic papers: term papers, seminar papers, essay exams

Techniques for Helping Students to Succeed

• why is the student writing the text?
• who is going to read the text?
• why is the reader reading the text?
• reveal and explain your evaluation criteria
• break down the assignment into intellectual tasks that the students must perform according to an established timetable
• monitor the students' progress
• show them models or examples
• define the conventions you want the students to use (e.g., documentation forms, textual   format, levels of diction, organizational patterns)
• create opportunities for students to receive feedback on proposals and drafts (feedback   from peer groups? from you? from the Writing Center? from departmental tutors?
• distinguish and separate feedback from evaluation

Types of Formal Writing

We do not have a preconceived, one-size-fits-all definition of "writing competence." Rather, individual faculty define competence as it applies to their disciplines and to their undergraduate students. To facilitate this analysis, we distinguish among three broad categories of formal writing:

• Academic writing . Perhaps the most common type of formal writing in school is purely academic. Its major purpose is for students to demonstrate their knowledge about a specific subject. It is prompted by instructor questions to describe, explain, discuss, analyze, evaluate (and so forth) and is written for the teacher as the sole audience for the work. Many types of reports and papers fall into this category: essay exams, short answers on exams, research projects, book reports, papers that analyze or critique a specific topic, issue or problem, etc.
• Scholarly writing . This includes all the types of writing a working scholar might do. The purpose of such writing is to communicate about the ideas, theories, inquiry methods, and research findings of the discipline. Majoring in a discipline involves entering into and becoming a member of a discourse community-learning to think and communicate like other members of the discipline. Thus, an important aspect of teaching students to write is developing their ability to participate in the discourse community: to use the well-established conventions, rules, and practices that govern scholarly communication. The obvious and most common example of scholarly writing is the article in a scholarly journal. Other types of scholarly writing include grant proposals, laboratory reports, field study reports, critical reviews (of a book, an article, software, a visual object, etc.), review essays, opinion pieces to a professional journal, scholarly response articles, and scholarly essays.
• Professional/workplace writing . This includes all the writing a working professional must engage in. Some graduates will engage directly in the scholarly discourse of their discipline after graduation; many will become professionals whose primary work is not scholarly. Academic majors, after all, are also pathways to future employment, and a university education can help prepare students for the kinds of writing common in the workplace and professional life. Of course, it is not possible to prepare students for every type of writing they will encounter, but students should have some experience with and expertise in common forms of writing used in the professional workplace. Perhaps most importantly, students should develop a facility to analyze a communicative situation and determine what kind of writing is most appropriate for specific audiences and contexts. Some examples of workplace writing include program proposals, business letters, interoffice memos, reports to co-workers, feasibility studies, program assessments and evaluations, and many different types of writing for lay audiences, such as brochures, pamphlets, guides, instruction sheets, etc.

Accountancy Major - Bachelor of Science (BS)

UWL accountancy majors have the technical knowledge and the practical experience that puts them in demand for both entry-level positions and throughout their careers. Internships are a big part of the practical experience opportunity. Career Services data shows that the Accountancy Program is usually the most active internship program at UWL. Accountancy internships are well-paid.

To be eligible to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) requires the minimum of 150 credits and an undergraduate degree. UWL's undergraduate program allows students the flexibility to complete 150 credits, an internship, and an undergraduate degree in four-and-one-half years.  

The Accountancy Program works closely with organizations and alumni to keep our program up-to-date. A byproduct of that work is a variety of scholarships for accountancy students. Be sure to apply at the UWL Foundation as a new first year student and as a continuing student.

Admission to the College of Business Administration

The 300/400 level accountancy courses are open only to those students who have been admitted to the business program. Exceptions to this policy may be made only by the College of Business Administration Dean. Students will be allowed to register for ACC 311 without having been admitted to the business program.

(College of Business Administration)

Accountancy majors are allowed and encouraged to register for ACC 311 Intermediate Accounting I (3 cr.) , before being admitted to the business program.

Except for ACC 350 , ACC 450 , and ACC 499

Additional requirement for accountancy majors:

• A cumulative grade point average of 2.50 in the accountancy major courses.

All students must complete the general education, college core, major/minor, and university degree requirements in order to qualify for a degree. The easiest way to track all of these requirements is to refer to the Advisement Report (AR) found in the Student Information System (WINGS) Student Center. All enrolled students have access to the AR.

• General education
• College core

Baccalaureate degree requirements

College of business administration (cba) core requirements.

All students enrolled in any program within the college must complete the 16 business core courses listed below and all requirements for the major (see department listings). Courses numbered at the 100 and 200 level as well as MGT/ MKT 301  are considered pre-business courses. MGT 449 must be taken in the semester of graduation.

Candidates for the Bachelor of Arts or the Bachelor of Science degrees must accomplish the following:

• Fulfill the general education requirements.
• Complete at least one ethnic studies (diversity) course.
• Complete the courses prescribed by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee for the degree desired in the respective school or college.
• Earn a minimum of 120 semester credits with at least a 2.00 cumulative GPA. 1, 2
• At least 40 credits must be earned in 300/400 level courses. Transfer courses earned or transferred at the 300/400 level apply to this requirement.
• Complete major and minor requirements with at least a 2.00 GPA 1, 2 in each major and minor (and concentration or emphasis, if selected).
• A minimum of 30 semester credits in residence at UWL is required for graduation. (See undergraduate resident requirement .)
• Submit an application for graduation via the "Apply for Graduation" link in the WINGS Student Center as soon as the student has registered for his or her final semester or summer term in residence. December and winter intersession graduates should apply by May 1. May and summer graduates should apply by December 1.

Grade point average requirements for some programs will be considerably higher than 2.00. Re-entering students may be required to earn credits in excess of the 120 needed for graduation in any curriculum in order to replace credits earned in courses in which the content has changed substantially in recent years. Each case will be judged on its own merit.

The grade point average recorded at the time the degree is awarded will not be affected by future enrollment.

No degree will be awarded unless all requirements are fulfilled and recorded within 30 days after the official ending date of each term.

Below is a sample degree plan that can be used as a guide to identify courses required to fulfill the major and other requirements needed for degree completion. A student's actual degree plan may differ depending on the course of study selected (second major, minor, etc.). Also, this sample plan assumes readiness for each course and/or major plan, and some courses may not be offered every term. Review the course descriptions or the class timetable for course offering information.

The sample degree plans represented in this catalog are intended for first-year students entering UWL in the fall term. Students should use the Advisement Report (AR) in WINGS and work closely with their faculty advisor(s) and college dean’s office to ensure declaration and completion of all requirements in a timely manner.

General Education Program The general education curriculum (Gen Ed) is the common educational experience for all undergraduates at UWL. Sample degree plans include Gen Ed placeholders to ensure completion of the general education requirements. Courses may be rearranged to fit the needs or recommendations of the student’s program of study. Gen Ed courses may be taken during winter term (January between the semesters) and summer to reduce the course load during regular terms (fall and spring). Students should consult with their advisor and/or the college academic services director in their college/school for assistance with course and schedule planning. Refer to the  general education requirements  for more specific details.

At least 40 credits of the 120 credits required must be earned at the 300/400-level. 

Note:  New students and transfer students with 15 or fewer credits earned are required to take FYS 100 First-Year Seminar (3 cr.) during one of their first two semesters at UWL.

This sample degree plan does not establish a contractual agreement. It identifies the minimum requirements a student must successfully complete, to qualify for a degree, in a format intended to assist the student in planning their academic career. Actual degree plans may differ.

Some students take an internship during the Spring semester of their fourth year. This may extend the time it takes to earn a degree past four years in order to fit in the required courses. See below for the sample extra term. Students should work with an advisor to plan their program of study for the additional internship credits.

Students intending to become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) must earn a minimum of 150 credits (30 credits beyond the minimum 120 required for the bachelor's degree). The additional 30 credits may come from the following: transfer credits, Winter Intersession or Summer courses, and additional credits taken during the regular Fall and Spring semesters. Students may consider taking additional ACC electives and adding another major or minor to reach the 150 credits.

Grade of "C" or better is required for admission to the CBA Business Program.

Accountancy majors may complete in the first year.

Different electives are offered in the Spring and Fall. Be sure to plan your elective in advance.

Students should note that taking an internship may require an additional semester and extend the time to earn a degree past four years.

Taken final semester, requires completion of all other core requirements.

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Impact 2028 Strategic Plan

Impact 2028 - our strategic plan intro.

The University of West London is moving into a bold and exciting future guided by an ambitious strategic plan; Impact 2028.

The aspirations laid out in this plan are within our reach, fuelled by our standing as the nation’s fastest-rising university and our commitment to student success and research productivity.

This plan charts our course for the next five years and positions UWL as a powerful engine of prosperity, one that prioritises: lifelong learning, impactful research, access, inclusion, sustainability, and the ever-important digital ecosystem.

In recent years we have gained national recognition for the quality of the student experience and the social mobility that accrues from it. We have also gained a reputation for research productivity and innovation and as a result, we have become a destination of choice for a diverse body of students and staff.

In recent years we have gained national recognition for the quality of the student experience and the social mobility that accrues from it."

Download Impact 2028 Strategic Plan

Context and place.

Great cities nurture great universities and vice versa. The University of West London sits at the heart of its region which continues to be a growing metropolis and economic powerhouse. The West London area has a combined value of more than £75 billion and is home to world renowned companies including Heathrow Airport, Glaxo Smith Kline, Cisco Systems, Disney, and Coca-Cola, with over 100,000 businesses housed in the region. It also has the largest proportion of start-up and micro companies in the capital.

As part of this dynamic eco-system, we will ensure that our many stakeholders in the region will be involved in helping us deliver high-quality outcomes for students while bringing added value to the economy. It will mean building on the talent and skills of everyone in the region by addressing technological change, automation, and business innovation. It will also mean up-skilling and re-skilling by ensuring learners of all ages and backgrounds receive the educational opportunities they deserve.

The University has approximately 16,000 academically and professionally accomplished students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, specialist, and professional degrees as far afield as Dubai, Sri Lanka, India, Singapore, China, Oman, Hong Kong, Berlin, Cyprus, Athens, and Spain.

The University of West London Group has a number of sites: the main campus at St Mary’s Road, Ealing, Cavendish and Century House on the Uxbridge Road, and the Drama Studio London. The Paragon House campus is located in Brentford while the Berkshire Institute of Health is housed in the centre of Reading. Ruskin College in Oxford is also part of the UWL Group.

Sector challenges

Since the adoption of the last strategic plan, Achievement 2023, the external operating environment has changed unexpectedly and dramatically: The COVID-19 pandemic; a war in Europe; a conflict in the Middle East; a period of significant and continuing inflation; and the freezing of the home undergraduate fee. These have created significant sector wide volatility and uncertainty.

Reforms following the post-Augar consultation are still in the pipeline and the future funding picture is undecided for research, undergraduate, postgraduate and overseas students.

The Office for Students and its focus on quality and standards, means the requirements for student outcomes (The B3 Conditions of Registration), the new Teaching Excellence Framework, and the new National Student Survey continue to be highly regulated.

Student experience

Students have experienced enormous disruption to their learning, in part because of the pandemic. This affected their wellbeing and mental health.

Higher education institutions face long-term, systemic pressures on their financial sustainability and viability.

Digital opportunities

The shift to digital and the impact of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) such as ChatGPT are challenging the very nature of what we know and how we learn.

Pedagogic challenges

The new model of education delivery now involves a blended online and in-person experience, the balance of which remains contestable.

Climate change and sustainability

Reducing emissions and de-carbonising are driving the need for environmentally friendly estates and improved campus efficiency.

Our mission, values and promises

Our mission

Our mission is to nurture talent in all its forms, regardless of social background, gender, sexual orientation, and ethnicity; and empower our graduates to be confident, healthy, leading career professionals.

Our vision is to be a model institution in the preparation of graduates who are economically, socially, and ecologically impactful. A university that challenges, inspires, transforms, and achieves.

• Excellence: we commit to excel in all that we do.
• Innovation: we commit to be creative, responsive, and progressive.
• Integrity: we commit to be honest, ethical, authentic, and accessible.
• Inclusivity: we commit to respect and embrace equality and inclusion.
• Social responsibility: we commit to act for the public good.
• Courage:  we commit to take the risks necessary to achieve our goals.

Our promises

• We will help all our students and staff to discover their purpose and translate that into a fulfilling career and a meaningful life.
• We will actively seek creative ideas, perspectives, and voices.
• We will provide support for everyone’s physical, mental, and emotional health.
• We will provide opportunities for meaningful engagement with partners beyond the University.
• We will ensure a vibrant University community for all students, academics and professional support staff.

Strategic direction

As a diverse community defined by a rich palette of cultures, the new Strategic Plan addresses many of these challenges over the next five years. It will mean being balanced and visionary in our integration of the creative and performing arts and the human and social sciences alongside the biosciences, engineering, technology, AI and other STEM areas. We will also continue to excel in providing an affordable, accessible, and high-quality education. This will involve the promotion of lifelong learning and the creation, dissemination, and application of knowledge. We will build upon the ‘signs of the times’ and the ever-evolving needs of our students to re-animate our identity and secure our unwavering commitment to student access and success.

To achieve further impact, we will offer an exemplary education through research informed teaching, and a more digitally enhanced curriculum to provide greater employment led opportunities. We will also offer a renewed portfolio and a curriculum that will educate students to develop the insights they need to navigate and lead in a rapidly changing world. This will involve offering shorter, connected courses and micro-credentials alongside standard degrees underpinned by new digital technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI). This ‘borderless education’ will accelerate the use of new pedagogic approaches and less static forms of learning. In addition, we will recruit, retain, and inspire academically and professionally able people who can continue to shape our human capital - our most precious resource.

Strategic outcomes, goals and our pillars

Strategic outcomes

• To be in the top 50 in the UK.
• To be in the top 70 research universities in the UK.
• To have a c. 700 World Ranking.
• To have Gold for sustainability and climate action.
• To achieve TEF Gold.
• To open a new Digital Futures Lab.
• To open the new School of Medicine and Biosciences.

Our pillars

The ’Strategic Pillars' underpinning this plan represent our distinctive areas of academic and interdisciplinary excellence. These ‘Pillars’ signify converging themes in teaching, research, and innovation across all our sites and campuses.

• Sustainability

Strategic goals

Promoting student success and life long learning.

• Increase student recruitment and enrolment in key areas.
• Maintain the National Student Survey (NSS) at above 80%.
• Reduce the student-to-staff ratio (SSR).
• Triple the number of National Teaching Awards.
• Improve continuation and completion to benchmark.
• Enhance degree classifications in all areas.

Building scalable, impactful research

• Increase expenditure on research and scholarship by 10% annually
• Grow the number of research students to a c. 1000.
• Increase the number of academic staff with doctorates to 80%
• Put in place a Research Support Unit (RSU).
• Grow the number of academic staff engaged in research, advanced professional study, and scholarly activity by 50%.
• Improve the bibliometric and citation levels of all publications.
• Multiply the number of external funding bids and have a 1:6 success rate.
• Hit the top 70 by GPA in REF 2028 and have a world ranking of c700.

Re-balancing the curriculum from SHAPE to STEM

• Improve under-representation in all STEM areas.
• Integrate STEM subjects across the curriculum.
• Support innovative STEM pedagogies, inquiry-based learning and student research.
• Further expand external funding for STEM initiatives by 50%.
• Establish a research commercialisation and intellectual property framework.
• Foster innovation in STEM for community engagement.
• Open a new School of Medicine and Biosciences.

Embedding sustainability throughout the curriculum

• Continually improve environmental and energy management systems.
• Reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption.
• Enhance biodiversity across campuses and sites.
• Develop and promote sustainable travel.
• Embed sustainability in all capital projects.
• Communicate our sustainability strategy and aspirations to all our partners.
• Support the University’s employability and career-focused objectives.

Enabling strategies

Deploying and integrating ai and other digital technologies.

• Offer students the opportunity to gain skills using AI supportive technologies.
• Shape and lead the public debate around digital futures.
• Encourage the use of AI to collect and manage resources.
• Learn about ethical and plagiarism issues linked to AI machines.
• Grow research capability and capacity in the areas of AI in Health, Data Science and Bioinformatics, Gamification and Digital Society.

Developing enterprise activities and innovative entrepreneurs

• Strengthen and grow new and existing enterprise collaborations – nationally and globally.
• Build a culture of entrepreneurship across the University.
• Increase the volume of start-up companies by 50%.
• Increase the number of patents awarded by 30%.
• Expand national and sub-contracted agreements.
• Maintain regulatory compliance in all collaborations and partnerships.

Generating local, national and global partnerships

• Be a ‘place-making’ institution in Feltham and support the establishment of a University Hub.
• Grow partnerships with local and regional school systems.
• Expand global partnerships and create operating ‘arms’ in Europe.
• Integrate partnerships in Hong Kong.
• Grow the Marbella International University Centre by 10% per annum.
• Open an International Maritime Institute.
• Grow UWL’s Ras Al-Khaimah campus by 30% by 2028.

Creating a high performing staff culture

• Ensure all reward process are flexible, fair, equitable and performance based.
• Build on existing systems for career progression, promotion and role enhancement.
• Guarantee that the Continuous Professional Development Framework is embedded and used effectively.
• Create a ‘pipe-line’ of talent across the institution.
• Provide appropriate levels of digital literacy, AI and sustainability awareness of staff in relation to their roles and functions.

Maintaining a strong, sustainable, financial base

• Design and implement transparent, and predictable budget setting models.
• Diversify revenue streams to support all operations.
• Grow alumni donations.
• Enhance strategic revenue alignment.
• Optimise investments and maximise institutional assets.
• Maintain rigorous cost control and streamline finance processes.
• Increase the effectiveness of digitalisation of the University’s operations.

Encouraging Internationalisation

• Grow our overseas student community and enhance the international student experience.
• Offer further opportunities for all our students to be globally engaged.
• Improve the internationalisation of the curriculum.
• Afford high quality international opportunities for our staff and students.
• Create and build a targeted international profile to enhance quality growth in the overseas market.
• Build international research, scholarship and knowledge exchange with our overseas partners.
• Engage international alumni to encourage new ideas and create opportunities.

Embed an inclusive and diverse culture across the University

• Continue to attract a diverse workforce and recruit students from all backgrounds.
• Develop a culture that promotes and celebrates equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI).
• Monitor and evaluate our EDI priorities and plans.
• Close all the attainment gaps in terms of awards, outcomes and progression.
• Ensure the objectives in our Access and Participation Plan (APP) are met.
• Use all equalities data to inform progress against our strategic outcomes.

Impact 2023-28 key performance indicators

Strategic goal: promoting student success and lifelong learning.

Target by 2028 and key performance indicators:

• 80%+ - National Student Survey (NSS).
• Gold - Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).
• To Benchmark - continuation and completion.

Strategic goal: Building scalable impactful research

• Top 70 - Research Excellence Framework (REF).
• 80% - staff with doctorates.
• 1,000 - research students.

Strategic goal: Rebalancing the Curriculum from SHAPE to STEM

• UG and PG - School of Medicine.
• Up 30% - new STEM students.

Strategic goal: Embedding sustainability throughout the curriculum

• 50% - carbon reduction.
• Top 10 - People and Planet.

Enabling strategies: Maintaining a strong sustainable financial base

• 10%pa - surplus.
• c. 40% - staff costs.

Enabling strategies: Generating local, national and global partnerships

• 5,000 - overseas students.
• 8,000 - TNE numbers.

Enabling strategies: Developing enterprise activities and innovative entrepreneurs

• 50% growth - start up companies.

Enabling strategies: Deploying and integrating AI and other digital technologies

• Opened - Digital Futures Lab.

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