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Programme Amendments and Withdrawal/Suspensions for 2026-27 Academic Year

During the past year, Teaching Learning and Delivery through a Programme Development Working Group, have undertaken a review of the programme development processes for programme amendments and programme withdrawal/suspensions. Following approval of these changes by the Teaching Learning Student Committee in September 2025, new guidance and documentation are now available on the TLD website.

For both processes there are new forms, however, if colleagues have already started work populating the old amendment or withdrawal/suspension form(s), these will still be accepted during this academic year.

The main changes to the programme amendment process this year are:

  • A new streamlined form that can easily be completed in Word: view here
  • A new guidance document to support the process: view here
  • Revised minor and major amendment categories: view here
  • The introduction of a new category called significant amendment.
  • Associate Deans will be paired with Disciplines so they are involved in the process much sooner and will be aware of the amendment request as it progresses. The aim is to facilitate quicker feedback, review and approval of amendment requests.

Please note: if the same type of amendment affects several units, one form can be used for all units.

Amendments and Programmes, Options & Assessments (POA) Project

In addition to the new amendment documentation, Phase 2 of the POA review in FSE has now set Discipline goals for change across Programmes, Options, and Assessments for AY 2026/27. The intention will be to use amendment forms to help track and monitor the POA targets agreed by the Joint POA Steering Committee and Faculty Executive (FE), as such colleagues will be asked to clearly state on the form if the amendment is related to POA.

  • If colleagues are using the new form – section 3 of the form should be used to identify if the change is a POA amendment – i.e. with the text / statement under “resources column” colleagues should indicate here if the amendment request being submitted, is one identified for POA.

Important: Colleagues are asked to identify in this section of the form if the amendment is for POA so these can be easily monitored and tracked. Please quantify the reductions or additions that the amendment is proposing – for example closure of one Programme; retirement of three units; removal of three assessments etc.

  • If colleagues have started using the old amendment form – if the amendment is for POA, this should be stated in the box on page 1 as part of the “rationale for the amendment.”

Important: Colleagues are asked to identify in this section of the form if the amendment is for POA so these can be easily monitored and tracked. Please quantify the reductions or additions that the amendment is proposing – for example closure of one Programme; retirement of three units; removal of three assessments etc.

Updates to Course Unit Specifications/SLATE

A reminder – if you are making changes to your unit specification, when you populate the SLATE record for your unit, the in-built ILO checker will provide you with initial advice and feedback – this can help avoid delays to the approval of your amendment.

Deadlines

Any changes to programmes and units should in the first instance be discussed with your Discipline Head of Education.

Dates for submission of amendments, withdrawals/suspensions to your School Curriculum and Programmes/Foundation Studies team are:

  • Friday 13th February 2026 (UG and PGT with ATAS)
  • Friday 10th April 2026 (PGT)

Support

School C&P/Foundation Studies colleagues, as well as the FSE EDPPP team (fse-edppp@manchester.ac.uk) will be available to answer any questions and offer support relating to the new guidance and completion of the new amendment form and withdrawal/suspension form.