Programme Specifications

Programme summary

1. Programme Aims

• to integrate academic theory and practical work;
• to develop students’ skills and competences in the full range of research methods and techniques relevant to the investigation of the dramatic process;
• to explore and analyse the effect theories have on performance and the performative body;
• to combine different media (writing, performance, computer-generated image, graphics, audio, photography, video);
• to mix live and virtual (computer-generated) performance work and explore body-mind limits;
• to participate in group work and experiment with various performance methodologies.

The overall aim of the course is to improve understanding of the importance of performance in terms of how it is used, presented and interpreted, and how this may affect the mediation and communication of personal/collective narratives.

2. Relevant subject benchmark statements and other external reference points used to inform programme outcomes:

• The Benchmark Statement for Dance, Drama and Performance
• Framework for High Education Qualifications (FHEQ)

3. Programme Learning Outcomes

3.1 Knowledge and Understanding

On successful completion of the programme, students should be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• traditional and contemporary critical perspectives on performance;
• major contemporary debates about appropriate frameworks and theories;
• processes by which performance is created, realised and managed;
• processes through which performance is documented and interpreted.

3.2 Skills and other attributes

a. Subject-specific cognitive skills:

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to:

• cogently present ideas in a number of forms;
• employ bibliographical skills appropriate to the discipline, including accurate citation of texts and scholarly conventions of presentation;
• assess and appraise their own and others’ professional practice;
• understand how to research and develop theories and practice in performance.

b. Subject-specific practical skills:

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to:

• demonstrate a capacity to develop appropriate strategies to address ideas or themes in self-chosen projects;
• read, analyse, document and interpret performance;
• produce creative work for the entertainment and related industries;
• manage their own projects through to successful production/completion.

c. Key transferable skills:

On successful completion of this programme, students should be able to:

• retrieve information from both electronic and hard-copy sources and critically evaluate these sources;
• comprehend and develop intricate ideas in an open-ended way;
• demonstrate well-developed writing and interpersonal communication skills;
• deliver required work to a given brief, format, length and deadline.

4. Programme structure

4.1     To be eligible for consideration for these awards, students must obtain appropriate credit from the following compulsory and optional modules. 

4.2       The subjects for the Dissertation module (EAP018) must be approved in advance by the Programme Leader or nominee, and dissertations must be submitted by a specified date in the first half of September. The dissertation should be a maximum of 15,000 words in length.

5. Criteria for Progression and Degree Award

5.1      In order to be eligible for the award, candidates must satisfy the requirements of Regulation XXI.

5.2      Students will normally be permitted to proceed to the Dissertation module (EAP018) only after successfully accumulating 120 credit units.

5.3      Students taking the Dissertation module may also be required to take an oral examination on the work submitted.

5.4      In accordance with Regulation XXI, candidates who have the right of reassessment in a module will be offered an opportunity to be reassessed in the University’s special assessment period.

6. Relative Weighting of Parts of the Programme for the Purposes of Final Degree Classification