About

The framework was developed by the University of Hull Teaching Excellence Academy in response to the vision of Pro-Vice-Chancellor Education Professor Becky Huxley-Binns that all of the programmes of the University should be competence-based. Working with a ‘Competence-based HE Super Group’, made up of colleagues from a variety of disciplines and services and at differing degrees of responsibility/experience, students and their advocates, and employers of our graduates, the Academy sought to develop a competence-based framework that responded to the challenges of the 4^th Industrial Revolution, that recognised the disciplinary specialisms of our academic communities and that enabled the development of curricula that were meaningful to the community that we serve. Through the application of the framework, University of Hull programmes are developed holistically to ensure the three crucial elements that constitute competence (knowledge, experience, and self-awareness) synthesise through active, applied learning, and draw on professional practices that exceed narrow disciplinary-specificity (Huxley-Binns, Lawrence & Scott, 2023).

Having built the framework, Teaching Excellence Academy specialists in scholarship and pedagogy, in the use of data to enhance learning and in technology enhanced learning then worked together with disciplinary academic champions (early adopters) to both refine the framework and develop an integrated programme of training and support to facilitate university wide implementation. The support developed was in itself competence-based (living our pedagogical practice/philosophy is core to our values), integrated into our Post Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice and our Academic Development Portfolio and a suite of self-paced, Academy-facilitated, and Academic-champion supported activities.

This Quality Assurance Agency funded Collaborative Enhancement Project afforded an opportunity to explore the use of the framework in a range of institutional settings. It involved the Hull University Students’ Union, Oxford Brookes University, Cambridge University and Bishop Burton College.

Members of the Hull team spent time working with each partner to develop and deliver workshops the aim of which was to enable members of the local education community to explore the potential of the framework in their own contexts. At each partner institution individuals and/or teams carried out projects and developed case studies involving competence-based education.

Through this work we have been able to refine the framework and to develop the materials and case studies presented through the Competence-Based Education  website.

We thank all colleagues at the University of Hull who have engaged with the Framework and provided feedback on it’s value as a curriculum design aide. We thank the colleagues at each of the collaborative partner institution involved in this project without whom our ideas and practices could not have been refined. We are especially grateful to Professor Becky Huxley-Binns for driving the CBE agenda at Hull and encouraging us to think beyond the institution and to Dr Amrita Narang from QAA for her generous advice and support throughout the project. The Collaborative Enhancement Project was supported and funded by QAA Membership.