• Section 1 - Purpose
• Section 2 - Policy 
• Section 3 - Procedure
• Authoritative course and subject information
• Conscientious objections to learning activities or assessment tasks
• Offensive or confronting content in courses or subjects 
• Publishing and promoting award course information
• Representation of courses that are professionally accredited
• Information on intensive schools
• Subject outlines
• Preparation and checking of subject outlines
• Content requirements for subject outlines
• Assessment information in subject outlines
• Additional requirement for honours subject outlines
• Additional requirements for workplace learning subject outlines
• Changes to subject outlines
• Providing students with past subject outlines
• Subject outline availability to prospective students
• Recording Indigenous Australian content
• Award names
• Abbreviations of award names
• Subject availability 
• Subject names
• Subject codes
• Workplace learning
• Section 4 - Guidelines and other supporting documents
• Section 5 - Glossary

Section 1 - Purpose

(1) This procedure supports the Course and Subject Policy by setting detailed requirements for subject and course information including:

1. published information and subject outlines, and
2. course and subject names and coding on systems.

(2) This procedure is intended to ensure that information about courses and subjects is:

1. complete, accurate and of a consistently high standard, so it will form a sound basis for the enrolment contract with students,
2. published in good time for prospective and current students to make decisions about their applications, enrolment and to prepare for study, and
3. consistently and correctly recorded on University systems, so it will meet the requirements of regulators and funders and be a sufficient record of the University’s curriculum.

Section 2 - Policy 

(3) This procedure supports the Course and Subject Policy and should be read alongside that policy.

Section 3 - Procedure

Authoritative course and subject information

(4) The following table sets out the authoritative sources of course and subject information:

(5) In accordance with the University’s legislative and regulatory requirements, courses and subjects that are offered or intended to be offered:

1. will not be described as accredited, whether by TEQSA or by a professional accreditation body for registration to practise, until such professional accreditation has been obtained,
2. will not provide false or misleading information about outcomes associated with undertaking a course, eligibility for acceptance into another course, employment outcomes or possible migration outcomes, and
3. will provide information to assist in decisions about courses or units of study, including the course design, prerequisites, assumed knowledge, when and where courses/units are offered, application dates, arrangements for recognition of prior learning, standing credit transfer arrangements, pathways to employment and eligibility for registration to practise where applicable.

(6) The Admissions Policy, Enrolment and Fees Policy and Communications and Marketing Policy provide further information about the information that will be provided to prospective and current students and how courses and subjects will be marketed. 

Conscientious objections to learning activities or assessment tasks

(7) Prospective students are responsible for checking the University Handbook entry for a course before they apply for it or enrol in it, to consider whether they may have a conscientious objection to its learning activities or assessment tasks.

(8) Similarly, current students are responsible for checking subject outlines before they enrol in subjects, to consider whether they may have a conscientious objection to a subject’s learning activities or assessment tasks.

(9) The Course and Subject - Conscientious Objection Procedure states requirements for:

1. course and subject information to inform students of uses of animals in learning activities and assessment tasks, and
2. the time frame and process for:
   1. a student to raise a concern about or conscientious objection to a learning activity or assessment task, and
   2. the teaching school to assess it and, where it is a conscientious objection, consider whether an alternative learning activity or assessment task can be substituted.
3. Where, however, the learning activity or assessment task is essential to subject learning outcomes, or it would be too onerous or costly to provide an alternative, an alternative may not be available.

Offensive or confronting content in courses or subjects 

(10) The University may take reasonable and proportionate steps to ensure that all prospective students in any of its courses have an opportunity to be fully informed of the content of those courses, and current and prospective students should review handbook information and course and subject outlines where available before applying or enrolling.

(11) Staff are not required to preclude content from a course or subject solely on the grounds that it may offend, shock or confront any student or class of students. See the Course and Subject Design (Coursework) Procedure for more information on course design requirements.

Publishing and promoting award course information

(12) The University award course information comprises of the curriculum management systems’ high-level curriculum data and Course Availability Listing data. 

(13) The data in these systems must be used when publishing course information (for example, in the University Handbook, online course brochure for prospective students, subject outlines) and where the University provides information to a third party (for example, Universities Admissions Centre).

(14) Information about all active courses must be published in the University Handbook unless otherwise approved by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic).

(15) A course cannot admit students until it is approved and active.

(16) A new course or changed version of a course may only be included in other promotional material with a ‘draft’ or ‘planned’ status note once the faculty has provided all the information for promotion required by the Brand and Performance Marketing team.

(17) The only exception to the above restrictions on publication is a new double degree comprising two existing degrees, neither of which will have its structure changed to create the new double degree.

(18) All published information on a double degree course must state clearly whether graduates will receive:

1. a testamur for each component single degree, or
2. where one or both component single degrees are not offered individually, a single testamur with the double degree award title.

(19) Course-specific academic progress requirements such as key subjects or an approved maximum period of enrolment shorter than standard must be stated in the University Handbook entry for the course.

(20) Enrolment numbers are provided to prospective students as an indication of the scale of the Charles Sturt University course and the learning environment. This information is to be based on recent actual enrolments in the case of an existing course, or realistic projections in the case of a new course. A range could be used (for example, ‘we expect to enrol between x and y students’). In the case of nested courses, the enrolment numbers should be for the whole course.

Representation of courses that are professionally accredited

(21) Where courses require professional accreditation, the Associate Dean (Academic) is responsible for ensuring the accuracy and currency of information included in the University Handbook and online course brochure (or the professional accreditation website).

(22) Only courses that are professionally accredited can be described as being professionally accredited.

(23) Courses that are yet to be accredited, or courses that have conditions relating to their professional accreditation status, must be clearly represented in the University Handbook and online course brochure (or the professional accreditation website) including, where necessary, any discipline specific information to provide context to the condition status.

(24) The Associate Dean (Academic), as a delegate of the Executive Dean of the faculty, is responsible for notifying the  Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) of any material changes to the professional accreditation status of a course. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) is responsible for initiating a material change notification to the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA).

(25) If the professional accreditation status of a course changes, the Associate Dean (Academic) must ensure current and prospective students are provided with accurate, relevant and timely information about any adverse impacts, expressed or implied, on the student outcomes associated with undertaking the course.

(26) If required, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), or nominee, can provide clarity on appropriateness of professional accreditation representation information to ensure it is not false or misleading.

Information on intensive schools

(27) The Course and Subject Delivery and Management Procedure states the process and requirements for scheduling intensive schools.

(28) Once intensive school dates have been approved, Student Administration publishes them to students in the web student portal.

(29) Where an intensive school is for a course as a whole rather than for a specific subject, the University Handbook entry for the course will explain why the intensive school is necessary.

Subject outlines

Preparation and checking of subject outlines

(30) The Subject Coordinator will prepare the subject outline.

1. Where a subject has a Subject Convenor, they will prepare the master subject outline; then any Subject Coordinators for the subject will use the master subject outline as a template in preparing the subject outline for each subject offering for which they are responsible, in consultation with the Subject Convenor.

(31) Subject outlines will be published in the University's learning management system, for each subject offering (by delivery mode) in each session, no later than 14 days before the session start date.

(32) Administrative subjects and higher degree by research thesis subjects are an exception: no subject outline need be prepared for these.

(33) The Course and Subject Quality Assurance and Review Procedure states requirements for checking that subject outlines include the contents specified below, before they are published to students.

Content requirements for subject outlines

(34) The Course and Subject Policy requires that each delivery of a subject in a location or via a delivery mode will be consistent with the currently approved version of the subject. It will offer students the same learning experiences and learning outcomes, and will, as far as possible, require the same assessment tasks.

(35) Subject outlines must include the subject outline’s standard statements on:

1. the acknowledgement of country,
2. academic integrity,
3. policies relevant to students,
4. availability of special consideration and grade review,
5. subject evaluation, and
6. the requirement that students keep a copy of the subject outline.

(36) Subject outlines must:

1. give the Subject Coordinator's phone number, email address and office room number (if they have an office), and arrangements for students to consult them such as consultation hours (these details must also be provided for other staff teaching the subject unless the staff are not yet known, in which case these can be provided via the online subject site once known),
2. give the Student Central contact details so students can ask for a subject teaching staff member to contact them if they are unable to contact the staff member,
3. describe the subject content and outcomes, and any assumed knowledge for the subject, as described in the current subject profile,
4. include a schedule of topics and study activities,
5. inform students of textbooks, learning materials and how to find them, and any other resources they will need to undertake the subject,
6. describe how the subject will be taught, including (where applicable) details of classes per week, learning technologies and online learning spaces and how these will be used in learning, and how students are expected to engage in learning activities,
7. state whether analytics will be used to monitor students’ learning and adapt teaching and/or support practices, and if so, how, and
8. provide information on student expenses/time requirements, subject workload, intensive schools and assessment as specified in more detail below.

(37) Where students are expected to spend time and/or money to access specialist equipment or resources, or to travel for subject activities, the subject outline must explain why.

(38) If a subject has been approved with a variation from the standard workload (see the Course and Subject Design (Coursework) Procedure), the subject outline will state the expected workload and explain why it varies from the standard.

(39) For each online subject offering, the subject outline will say whether there is an intensive school and, if there is, whether this is compulsory, its location and duration, purpose and program of activities.

Assessment information in subject outlines

(40) The subject outline must:

1. summarise the assessment tasks, giving their due dates, the dates they will be returned to students, and their percentage weighting in calculating the final subject grade,
2. where an assessment task is a hurdle requirement, state that it is a hurdle requirement and what mark the student must achieve in the task to pass the subject,
3. state any other requirements to pass the subject (participation, attendance),
4. state the process to approve and notify students of any changes to the assessment in the subject (see the section on approval of subject outline changes in the Course and Subject Life Cycle Procedure), and
5. explain academic and/or research integrity to students as relevant, namely:
   1. if the subject is a coursework subject, explain academic integrity, providing a link to the academic integrity web page for students,
   2. if the subject is a research component subject, explain research integrity, providing a link to the research integrity web page, or
   3. if the subject is a coursework subject but involves a research activity, explain both academic integrity and research integrity, and provide links to both the relevant web pages.

(41) The subject outline must provide the following detailed information about each assessment task:

1. a task description,
2. a rationale for the task in relation to the subject learning outcomes,
3. for assessment tasks other than exams, tests and quizzes, the marking criteria and standards that will be used in marking, describing the standards that must be met to achieve each passing grade or (where relevant) a Satisfactory (SY) grade,
4. for exams and tests, which learning activities and materials are to be tested,
5. whether the task must be passed to pass the subject and, if so, any resubmission or second attempt process where there is such a process,
6. whether marking of the task will give a numerical mark or a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory mark; if a numerical mark, an explanation of its relationship with the grading system used in the subject and what mark for the task equates to a pass,
7. whether collaboration is permitted or encouraged and, if the task is collaborative, the expected amount and type of collaboration and how marks will be distributed among the group,
8. where a task has a submission deadline, the deadline, submission process, date by which marked assessments will be returned and the return arrangement; grounds and process for extension requests (if permitted); and penalties for late submission (if permitted),
9. where the task is an assignment, the circumstances under which it may be resubmitted,
10. where the task is an exam or test, its duration and sitting date if known, or a statement that the sitting date will be in the exam timetable published by the Examinations Office; and a summary of its format that gives, at a minimum, the type of answers required (multiple choice, short answer, essay), materials to be provided by the University and by the student, and
11. where the task involves referring to sources, the required reference style and a link to details of this style.

(42) Assessment criteria and standards will be communicated to students in the form of an assessment rubric.

1. The Assessment - Conduct of Coursework Assessment and Examinations Procedure states the conditions on which assessment tasks can be excepted from this requirement.

Additional requirement for honours subject outlines

(43) The subject outline for each subject required for a one-year bachelor (honours) degree, or for the honours stream of an integrated bachelor (honours) degree, will state whether the grade for the subject will contribute to the level of honours of the award and, if so, how.

(44) The Assessment - Conduct of Coursework Assessment and Examinations Procedure states detailed requirements for return of assessment to students.

Additional requirements for workplace learning subject outlines

(45) Where a subject requires students to go on a workplace learning placement, the subject outline will explain:

1. the duration of placements and when these will occur,
2. the process for students to be allocated a placement,
3. pre-placement requirements that students must meet to be permitted to go on placement,
4. that students must cover the costs of attending their placement including, where relevant, travel to the placement site, accommodation while there, food and living expenses,
5. that where a student will experience hardship in covering the costs of a placement, they can apply for financial support from the University, and
6. that where a student will be prevented from attending a placement at a certain distance from their home because of unavoidable carer responsibilities or unexpected, unavoidable employment commitments, they can apply for special consideration to request a different location or timing of the placement.

Changes to subject outlines

(46) The Course and Subject Life Cycle Procedure states the requirements for:

1. changes to subject outlines, and
2. approval of changes to assessment requirements in a subject outline after the session has started.

Providing students with past subject outlines

(47) Students are expected to retain a copy of the subject outline of subjects they have passed, so they can produce these to meet professional accreditation requirements or when applying for credit towards subsequent courses of study.

(48) A student who has not retained a copy of a subject outline, and later requires one, may request a copy of the subject outline from the office of the teaching faculty, which may charge an administration fee to cover the cost of this service.

Subject outline availability to prospective students

(49) Prospective students should have timely access to publicly available information about the subjects taught in each degree offering. The information: 

1. should be accurate, comprehensive and relevant,
2. must include how the subjects are taught and list the expenses associated with subjects, and 
3. contains detail about access for students with special needs to enable informed decision making. 

Recording Indigenous Australian content

(50) The Indigenous Australian Content in Courses and Subjects Policy specifies the data that must be recorded for courses and subjects with this type of content, in the curriculum management system.

Award names

(51) The name of an award to which a course leads has the following possible components:

1. an award indicator,
2. a generic component,
3. a course-specific component,
4. a discipline component to align with HESF 1.4 and 1.5.6a,
5. designation honours, research or honorary award,
6. an undergraduate major, and
7. a postgraduate specialisation.

(52) The award indicator (for example, ‘master of’, ‘associate degree in’) will use the preposition ‘of’ for all awards except an associate degree, graduate certificate or university certificate, which use ‘in’.

(53) A generic component describes a discipline or area of study that is broad enough to apply to more than one course at the same level (for example, arts, policing). A generic component would not normally be used also as a course-specific component in a course name.

(54) A course-specific component describes content specific to a particular course, either where all subjects in the course are in the specific area of study (for example, Master of Marketing) or in conjunction with a generic component to show the specific course area of study (for example, Bachelor of Social Science (Psychology)). A term used as a course-specific component can also be used to show a discipline in another course at the same level (for example, Master of Business Administration (Marketing)).

(55) A discipline component indicates that a graduate has completed a discipline as an optional sequence within a course. 

(56) An honours designation (the word ‘honours’ in brackets) is added at the end of names of bachelor (honours) courses.

(57) A research designation (the word ‘research’ in brackets) is added at the end of names of masters by research courses.

(58) An honorary award designation adds the italicised phrase ‘honoris causa’ in brackets after the award name, for honorary degrees conferred by the University under the Governance (Honorary Awards and Titles) Rule 2021. On the testamur, however, the phrase ‘honoris causa’ will not be italicised.

(59) The following elements must not be included in award names:

1. the name of a minor,
2. the phrase ‘with distinction’,
3. the word ‘conversion’ for awards from conversion courses, or
4. any reference to the location where the course was delivered.

(60) Course names in articulated sets of courses will be as similar as possible, using the same term for the discipline or area of study that is common to courses in the set. An exception may be made to meet market or professional expectations of one of the courses.

(61) If applicable, award names as approved by University Courses Committee will be the same as the award name registered on the Australian Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS).

(62) Where a degree is offered as part of a double degree, and is more specialised because of its combination with the other component degree in the double degree, the degree name will include a descriptor to indicate this.

(63) The following rules apply to the writing of award names:

1. Where both a generic component and a course-specific component are used, the course-specific component will be written in brackets after the generic component. If a discipline is also used, the name of the discipline is added within the brackets, after the course-specific component and separated from it by a dash; where there is more than one discipline, they are separated by a forward slash without spaces.
2. Abbreviations including acronyms or an ampersand in place of ‘and’ will not be used in award names, unless these are standard in a profession and industry and expected to be used: for example, ‘K-12’ in the name of an education award. A numeral, however, may be either a word or a number.

Abbreviations of award names

(64) The following rules apply to abbreviation of award names:

1. Abbreviations will be consistent with the list of approved abbreviations of words.
2. Where a word has not previously been used in an award title, the faculty will suggest an abbreviation in the abbreviation field of the course documents.
3. In the abbreviation of an award title, words will be abbreviated wherever possible, provided that the abbreviation allows readers to deduce the full word, including variants on the same word (for example, corrective and correctional; child, children and children’s).
4. Prepositions are omitted from abbreviations.
5. A single letter abbreviation is used where a word is conventionally abbreviated to a single letter (A for Arts in BA, H for Human in HRM); in contexts where there is no convention of abbreviating to a single letter, the same word may need a longer abbreviation or to be in full (for example, HumanServ).
6. An abbreviation will be a single sequence of letters without spaces or punctuation.
7. A numeral will be abbreviated as the number; the word ‘years’ after a numeral will be abbreviated to ‘yrs’.
8. The abbreviation of an honorary award starts with the abbreviation ‘Hon’ (for ‘honoris causa’) followed by a space before the normal abbreviation of the award (for example, Hon DBus).
9. In contexts where the abbreviation identifies Charles Sturt University as the institution awarding an award, the abbreviation is CSturt, in italics, following the award abbreviation and separated from it by a space.
10. In the same context, for joint awards of Charles Sturt Universityand another institution, the abbreviations for both institutions will follow the award abbreviation and be separated from it by a space. They will appear in italics and divided by a forward slash without spaces. The order of the two institutions’ abbreviations will be determined by the relevant agreement.

Subject availability 

(65) Subject availability is subject to change. Students should review their study plan regularly. They can change the mode of their subject and have the flexibility to accelerate their pace through their course by varying their subject load. This is dependent on the students' needs and subject availability.

(66) Enrolment patterns are provided to students. These are intended as a guide only, given the flexibility and options offered to students and the need to provide an enriched learning environment while ensuring the sustainability of offerings.

(67) Students who change their enrolment pattern or mode of study should consult with their Course Director, utilising the Graduation Planning System.

(68) Subject availability is routinely reviewed and published via the Subject Availability Listing and publicly available to students within the University Handbook, Graduation Planning System and online course brochure.

(69) Students are made aware of their obligations and enrolment requirements via offer acceptance, enrolment forms and additional guiding information available on various support pages on the University website.

(70) Any recommendation to change the subject offering is to be authorised by the Executive Dean and follow student communication protocols and processes to minimise the potential negative impact on the individual student.

Subject names

(71) Honours dissertation or project subjects will be named [Discipline] Honours Dissertation or [Discipline] Honours Project. The discipline descriptor may be broad or specific.

Subject codes

(72) Subject codes are issued by Student Administration.

1. Faculties can request specific subject codes provided these meet the requirements below and are available.

(73) Each subject code comprises a three-letter discipline prefix and three digits.

(74) Discipline prefixes to subject codes are not necessarily the same as the academic units offering the subjects or the discipline areas reported against the subject in government reporting.

(75) The level of a subject is indicated by the first digit in the subject code. This number indicates how advanced the subject is, using the following scale. It does not indicate the ‘year level’ within a course, though it may coincide with the year level:

1. Level 000: bridging, enabling or other non-award subject.
2. Level 100: introductory.
3. Level 200: building on level 100.
4. Level 300: building on level 200 up to the outcome level of a three-year undergraduate degree.
5. Level 400: the outcome level of a four-year undergraduate degree, an integrated four-year bachelor (honours) degree, and one-year bachelor (honours) degree or of postgraduate study that goes beyond undergraduate outcomes.
6. Level 500: a component of a masters course other than a research component of a master by research course.
7. Level 600: a research component of a masters course.
8. Level 700: a subject contributing to a doctoral course (including professional doctorates).
9. Level 800: a subject contributing to a research doctoral course (AQF Level 10).

(76) A subject code is unique to a subject and should not be re-used when that subject is made obsolete. The same code will be used for different versions of the one subject.

Workplace learning

(77) The Course and Subject Design (Coursework) Procedure states the conditions that workplace learning subjects must meet to be classified as such.

Section 4 - Guidelines and other supporting documents

(78) Detailed work instructions are maintained in the Knowledge Base (in Confluence, under Faculty Admin) by the functional area supporting the specific task.

Section 5 - Glossary

(79) Most of the terms in this procedure are defined in the glossary section of the Course and Subject Policy. For the purposes of this procedure the following additional terms have the definitions stated:

1. Administrative subject – a subject with no credit points value, and for which students receive no grade, created for an administrative purpose in relation to a course or courses.
2. Assessment - the process of attributing value to the examined outcomes of any task that a student is required to undertake and complete in order to satisfy the requirements of their studies.
3. Assessment tasks - a broad term that refers to all types of tasks used to assess student learning. It includes but is not limited to essays, tests, examinations, laboratory, workplace learning tasks, projects, productions, portfolios, presentations, performances and online activities.
4. Assignment - any piece of work listed in the Assignment Information section of a subject outline which a student is required to complete to satisfy the requirements of the subject. It generally refers to assessment tasks that are not examination-based and that are generally completed over time.
5. Descriptor – a phrase added to an award title in parentheses to indicate the discipline specialisation of a course or that a graduate has completed a specialisation as an optional sequence within a course.
6. Indigenous Australian content – see the Indigenous Australian Content in Courses and Subjects Policy for the University’s definition of this type of content.
7. Rubric – an evaluation tool or set of guidelines to ensure consistent marking of an assessment task; communicates expectations of learning outcomes and the criteria for assessing students’ levels of achievement of these.