A Premium Teaching and Learning Experience
With a promise to deliver a premium, personalised and purposeful student experience, we’ll help shape you into a resilient and adaptable world-ready graduate who can make a real difference.
The Chester Future Skills Curriculum
The ‘Chester Future Skills Curriculum’ is one of ways we help you to become a highly valuable graduate that isn’t just work ready, but world ready!
With a focus on applied learning, the ‘Chester Future Skills Curriculum’ is essentially the framework we use to ensure that our courses remain relevant to the real world. This effectively means we’ll always be helping you to develop the right skills and expertise needed for that graduate career you aspire to.
A closer look at the core principles of the ‘Chester Future Skills Curriculum’ will explain exactly how we make this happen.
Professional Development Module
Gain a competitive edge at Chester.
Our unique second-year module lets you personalise your learning through work placements, experiential projects, language study, or overseas options, making you a resilient, future-ready graduate.
Find out more about our Professional Development Module.
Our modular approach
From 2025, the University’s academic year will be delivered over three ten-week terms. In each term, you will study 40 credits comprised of either:
- one 40-credit module; or
- two 20-credit modules.
Whether you are studying one 40-credit module a term or two 20-credit modules a term, the number of credits will always add up to 120 credits in a year as this is what you will need to complete your degree.
Further details on how you will be taught and assessed on any one course can be found on our course pages. However, in most cases, teaching is delivered in person, with some occasional online learning if this is deemed more appropriate.
Throughout your degree, you are expected to study for approximately 1,200 hours per year. This is based on 200 hours per 20-credit module, or 400 hours per 40-credit module, made up of scheduled teaching contact hours, time spent on placement (if applicable) and independent study.
Scheduled contact hours can range between approximately 8-12 hours a week, depending on the level of study and the complexity of the subject material, but you should also expect to spend an average of 30 – 34 hours a week on independent study. Independent study might include following asynchronous learning material on the University’s VLE (Virtual Learning Environment), studying in the University’s library, working with peers or preparing work for an assessment.
As you progress through your studies, teaching hours may reduce, with the expectation that you’ll be spending more time on independent study.
How you are assessed will depend on the course you are studying and the modules you choose. You may be assessed through a mixture of exams, coursework, presentations, reports, essays, and group projects. However, rather than setting assessments at the end of the year, assessments will take place during each module and will be integrated into the learning process, reflecting real-world applications of knowledge that are relevant to the workplace.
All teaching is delivered by experienced academics and practitioners in the subject, often supplemented by specialist guest lecturers and speakers, with the fundamental principles of the ‘Chester Future Skills Curriculum’ at its core.
Professional and Regulated Degrees
The courses shown in the toggle bar relate to a specific industry or career path and follow many of the same principles outlined in the ‘Chester Future Skills Curriculum’ but, due the nature of these courses, follow a slightly different academic framework.
The way that these courses are delivered varies according to the requirements of the professional and the relevant regulator. Most courses are modular and are sequenced to ensure that you have the right practical knowledge and skills before periods on placement when you will be able to apply what you have learned to real-world settings. The Medicine programme is delivered in a single module over a full calendar year and in partnership with many organisations across the health and social care sector.
