Classifying specialist student practice: debates and dilemmas

At present, the practice elements of the Specialist Community Practitioner Awards within the BSc (Hons) in the Community Health degree course at Manchester Metropolitan University do not directly contribute to degree classification. Student evaluation and external examiner concerns about the heavy assessment load motivated the course team to consider classifying practice at 20 Level III credits which would replace 20 theory credits. The process of developing a credible assessment tool for specialist practice was long and hard but the course team is now in a position to undertake an exploratory study of the assessment and classification of practice. This paper provides an overview of the discussion and debates that took place in the years before the study began. A future paper will provide detail of the study and will include practice educators, students and managers views on the structure, process and outcomes of marking specialist student practice in community settings.