5. Course design

5.1 Course design principles

The design principles for courses are detailed in Table 1: Design principles for ANU courses.
Co-teaching (coursework) is where any course shares any teaching events, other than special events such as guest lectures by non-ANU staff or staff research seminars or SoCIETIE Initiative KNOTs, with any other course. Where co-teaching occurs, this must be indicated on each course page in Programs and Courses.
At a minimum, the following details about each course, including any amendments, must be endorsed by the College Education Committee, approved by the Delegated Authority, and published on programs and courses:

Course overview
Learning outcomes
Each assessment item, differentiating individual assessment from group assessment; which learning outcome/s, and where relevant graduate attribute/s, each item assesses; weighting of each of item; and if the assessment item is a hurdle assessment. Multiple similar types of assessment items may be grouped together where they all contribute to the same learning outcome/s and graduate attribute/s.
Workload including the number of hours for each workload type
Inherent requirements (if any)
Requisite and incompatibility (if any)
Assumed Knowledge (if any)

Table 1: Design principles for ANU courses

1000‐level courses	Structural requirements
	Are introductory, and focus on giving a broad overview of the discipline or field, or giving basic skills; May be aimed at either someone with no specific knowledge of the discipline or field, or may, if so stated, assume or require that a student has the equivalent of successful completion of the relevant final year high school curriculum; and Any pre‐requisites or co‐requisites must also be 1000‐level courses.
	Co-teaching requirements
	May only be co-taught with other 1000-level courses. 1000-level courses that are designated as Honours Pathway Courses either in the course description or by the addition of the letter H to the end of the code may be co-taught with 1000-level and 2000-level courses.
2000‐level courses	Structural requirements
	Explicitly build on the knowledge and skills developed by prior tertiary study; And either: The prior tertiary study may be articulated by having one or more named 1000‐level or 2000‐level courses as prerequisites: Or Require at least one of the following as a prerequisite: a minimum of 24 units of tertiary courses, or a minimum of 12 units in the field or discipline.
	Co-teaching requirements
	May only be co-taught with other 2000-level courses and/or with 6000-level courses, except that 2000-level courses that are designated as Honours Pathway Courses either in the course description or by the addition of the letter H to the end of the code may be co-taught with 2000-level, 3000-level and/or 6000-level courses.
3000‐level courses	Structural requirements
	Explicitly build on the knowledge and skills developed by prior advanced tertiary study; and Require at least one of the following as prerequisites: a minimum of one or more named 2000‐level or 3000‐level courses, a minimum of 24 units of courses within the field or discipline, or a minimum of 72 units of tertiary courses.
	Co-teaching requirements
	May only be co-taught with other 3000-level courses and/or with 6000-level courses.
4000-level courses	Structural requirements
	all Honours components listed in program orders for 1- year Honours plans are coded at 4000-level; Honours components listed in program orders for embedded Honours should be coded at 4000-level; and courses that are not Honours components must not be coded at 4000 level.
	Co-teaching requirements
	Those that require (directly or indirectly) the completion of a pass degree prior to enrolment may only be co-taught with other 4000-level courses and/or with 8000-level (including 8900R-level) and 9000-level courses. Those in embedded Honours programs that do not require the completion of a pass degree prior to enrolment may only be co-taught with 4000-level courses, and/or: EITHER with 8000-level (including 8900R level) courses and/or 9000-level courses; OR with 6000-level courses if those 6000-level courses are not additionally co-taught with 1000-level, 2000-level, or 3000-level courses; OR with 2000/3000 level courses in a different discipline at FoR 2-digit level if the 4000-level courses have different, higher-level learning outcomes and assessment to assess those higher-level learning outcomes and neither course is co-taught with 6000/7000/8000-level courses. For clarity, 4000-level courses must not otherwise be co-taught with 1000-level, 2000-level, or 3000-level courses.
5000-level code	This code is used for Microcredentials and Microcredential stacks. For clarity, courses coded at this level as at 01 October 2019 are grandfathered.
	Co-teaching requirements
	Microcredentials may only be co-taught with 7000- and 8000-level courses (including where 8000-level is co-taught with 4000-level). May not be co-taught with 1000-, 2000- or 3000-level undergraduate courses.
6000-level courses	Structural requirements
	Build on the generic knowledge and skills acquired through completion of at least an undergraduate pass degree; Are introductory and focus on giving a broad overview of the discipline, sub-discipline, or field; and Any pre‐requisites or co‐requisites must be at 6000-level or 7000-level. Any graduate level course that shares any teaching events, other than special events such as guest lectures by non-ANU staff or staff research seminars, with 1000-, 2000- and/or 3000- level courses must be coded at 6000-level. Graduate level courses that do not share any teaching events, other than special events such as guest lectures by non-ANU staff or staff research seminars, with 1000-, 2000- and/or 3000- level courses must not be coded at 6000-level but must be coded at 7000-level or higher.
	Co-teaching requirements
	May only be co-taught with other 6000-level courses and/or with 2000-level, 3000-level courses; they may also be co-taught with 4000-level courses if those 6000-level courses are not additionally co-taught with 1000-level, 2000-level, or 3000-level courses.
7000-level courses	Structural requirements
	Build on the generic knowledge and skills acquired through completion of at least an undergraduate pass degree; Are introductory and focus on giving a broad overview of the discipline, sub-discipline, or field; and Any pre‐requisites or co‐requisites must be at 6000- or 7000‐level.
	Co-teaching requirements
	May only be co-taught with other 7000-level courses.
8000-level courses	Structural requirements
	Either build on the knowledge and skills of the discipline, sub-discipline, or field, and the generic knowledge and skills, developed through completion of at least one of: prior cognate study equivalent to at least an undergraduate pass degree, or equivalent cognate work experience, or prior cognate study of at least 24 units of 6000- or 7000-level courses, or completion of at least 96 units towards an ANU vertical double degree and meeting the grade point average and any other requirements for admission into the Masters component; OR build on both: the generic knowledge and skills acquired through completion of at least an undergraduate pass degree, and stated foundational concepts and skills necessary for introductory courses in an advanced discipline; AND contribute to students being able to “apply an advanced body of knowledge in a range of contexts for professional practice or scholarship and as a pathway for further learning” (AQF, 2nd edition, 2013, p. 60).
	Co-teaching requirements
	May only be co-taught with other 8000-level courses and/or with 4000-level, 8900R-level, and/or 9000-level courses. 8000-level courses of less than 6 units are not co-taught except with 9000-level courses.
8900-coded courses	Structural requirements
	Restricted to students enrolled in a Master of Philosophy
	Co-teaching requirements
	May only be co-taught with other 8900-level courses and/or with 4000-level, 8000-level, and/or 9000-level courses.
9000-level courses	Structural requirements
	Restricted to students enrolled in a Doctor of Philosophy.
	Co-teaching requirements
	May only be co-taught with other 9000-level courses and/or with 4000-level, 8000-level, and/or 8900-level courses.

5.2 Modes of course delivery

Modes of delivery for courses are specified in Table 2: Modes of Delivery for ANU Programs.

Table 2: Modes of delivery for ANU courses [consistent with HESF 3.1.1.b]

Course: On-campus	A course where the curriculum has been designed with every expectation that students need to attend one or more face-to-face events at the ANU main campus at Acton or its campus at Mt Stromlo during the semester or session in order to achieve the learning outcomes. For clarity, the ANU campuses at Acton and Mt Stromlo are the only ANU campuses formally registered with the Commonwealth Government for program delivery.
Course: Online	A course where the curriculum has been designed to be taken fully online with no expectation that students attend any specific physical location to achieve the learning outcomes.
Course: In person fully off-shore	An in-person course taught at a location outside Australia. This includes all courses Fully Off-shore (that is, Transnational) Program, and some fieldwork, internship, and study tour courses. Such courses may include an online component. International students do not require an Australian visa for these courses, but depending on their citizenship both domestic and international students may require a visa for the country or countries in which offshore courses are taught.
Course: Off campus in-person	A course designed to be undertaken at a specified location in Australia other than at the ANU main campus at Acton or its campus at Mt Stromlo, which are the only ANU campuses formally registered with the Commonwealth Government for program delivery. Examples of such courses include some fieldwork courses or some work-integrated learning courses or courses delivered at ANU locations including the Kioloa campus or the Canberra Hospital. For the purposes of International Student Visa holders, an ‘in-person off campus’ course is equivalent to a ‘distance’ course (National Code, Standard 8).
Course: Intensive	A course that is designed so that a student’s physical presence on campus or other specified location, or synchronous online attendance, is a cumulative total of not more than 21 days (including weekends), which must be in not more than three separate blocks, each block to be of consecutive days which may or may not include weekends. Although it is not required that there be classes on each of the consecutive days, there must be structured learning activities on each of the days. For the purpose of an ‘intensive’, a block is a continuous period of time commencing on a specific time on a specific date, and concluding on a specific time on a specific date.

5.3 Course codes

Alpha [subject] codes for courses are University-wide, codes.

Alpha codes should normally refer to a discipline, but may refer to common activity present in multiple awards/disciplines.
Alpha codes must not refer to corporate structures such as Colleges, Schools, Centres, Institutes, etc.
Alpha codes may refer to a specific program other than a double degree program; any courses using an alpha code that identifies a specific program must be available only to students enrolled in that program, must not be made available to other students by a permission code or variation to program orders, and if the program is disestablished or renamed any courses using that program code must be disestablished or recoded.

Alpha codes that have two or more disciplines in the subject description must demonstrate how the disciplines are integrated within each course that uses the code, and must include assessment that demonstrates integration of the disciplines.
Available alpha codes are detailed in Table 3.

Table 3: Available course alpha [subject] codes

Alpha	Subject Description	Restrictions
AATD	ANU Graduate Attribute Transdisciplinary
ACST	Actuarial Studies
ANIP	Australian National Internship Program	New courses must be endorsed by ANIP convenor before approval
ANTH	Anthropology
ARAB	Arabic
ARCH	Archaeology
ARTH	Art History
ARTS	Arts
ARTV	Visual Arts
ASIA	Asian Studies
ASTR	Astronomy and Astrophysics
BAPA	Bachelor of Asia Pacific Affairs	Courses must be locked to Bachelor of Asia Pacific Affairs; convenor permission not to override this restriction
BIAN	Biological Anthropology
BIOL	Biology
BPHB	Bachelor of Philosophy (Hons) - HASS	Courses must be locked to Bachelor of Philosophy (Hons) Humanities and Social Sciences ; convenor permission not to override this restriction
BURM	Burmese
BUSI	International Business
BUSN	Accounting
CHEM	Chemistry
CHIN	Chinese
CHST	Chinese Studies in Language
CLAS	Classics
COMM	Commerce
COMP	Computer Science
CRIM	Criminology
CYBN	Cybernetics
DEMO	Demography
DESN	Design
DIPL	Diplomacy
ECHI	Economic History
ECON	Economics
EMDV	Environmental Management & Development
EMET	Econometrics
EMPL	Employability	Courses focused on employability that do not include a placement or internship or other work-integrated learning
EMSC	Earth and Marine Science
ENGL	English
ENGN	Engineering
ENVS	Environmental Science
EXCH	Exchange Course
EXED	Executive Education	All to be coded at 5000-level. Must not be used for AQF courses.
FINM	Financial Management
FREN	French
GEND	Gender Studies
GERM	German
GMTH	General Mathematics
GRAD	Graduate Education	Administrative use only
GREK	Greek
HIND	Hindi
HIST	History
HLMD	Health and Medicine
HLTH	Health Science
HONS	Final Honours Grade	Administrative use only
HUMN	Humanities
IDEC	International and Developmental Economics
INDG	Indigenous Studies	New courses must be endorsed by the Convenor of the Australian Indigenous Studies Major before approval
INDN	Indonesian
INFS	Information Systems
INTR	International Relations
ITAL	Italian
JPNS	Japanese
KORE	Korean
LANG	Language Studies
LATN	Latin
LAWS	Laws	Use of the LAWS code must be approved by the ANU College of Law, Governance and Policy Education Committee, owing to external accreditation requirements.
LING	Linguistics
MATH	Mathematics
MCDL	Microcredential/Microcredential Stack	All to be coded at 5000-level. Must not be used for AQF courses.
MEAS	Middle Eastern & Central Asian Studies
MEDI	Medicine
MEDN	Medical Science
MGMT	Management
MKTG	Marketing
MNGL	Mongolian Language
MUSC	Museums and Collections
MUSI	Music
NEUR	Neuroscience
NSPO	National Security Policy
PAAS	Pacific and Asian Studies
PASI	Pacific Studies
PERS	Persian
PHIL	Philosophy
PHYS	Physics
PLAC	Placement/Internship	All courses must meet the requirements of the Fair Work Act (Cth)
PNPI	Philosophy, Neuroscience, and Psychology Integration
POGO	Policy and Governance
POLS	Political Science
POPH	Population Health
PORT	Portuguese
PPEI	Politics, Philosophy and Economics Integration
PSYC	Psychology
REGN	Regulation
RSCH	Higher Degree by Research Coursework	Restricted to courses coded at 8900R (MPhil) or 9000 (PhD) level
RUSS	Russian
SCNC	Science
SCOM	Science Communication
SCRN	Screen Studies
SKRT	Sanskrit
SOCR	Social Research
SOCS	Social Sciences
SOCY	Sociology
SPAN	Spanish
STAT	Statistics
STST	Strategic Studies
TETM	Tetum
THAI	Thai
THES	Thesis
TIBN	Tibetan
TOKP	Tok Pisin
TRAN	Transfer to Graduate	Administrative use only
TURK	Turkish
UGRD	Undergraduate	Administrative use only
UNSP	Unspecified	Administrative use only
VIET	Vietnamese
WILC	Work Integrated Learning Course	All courses must meet the requirements of the Fair Work Act (Cth)

The alpha codes detailed in Table 4 are no longer available for use. However, courses using those codes as at 20 October 2023 may continue to do so.

Table 4: Course alpha [subject] codes against which new courses cannot be created

Alpha	Subject Description
CBEA	College of Business and Economics Administration
CHMD	Culture, Health and Medicine
CRWF	Crawford School of Public Policy
DESA	Design Art
DEST	Development Studies
ECCO	Economics/Commerce
ECOS	Human Ecology
FILM	Film Studies
FORA	Forensic Anthropology
GEOG	Geography
ICOM	International Communication
LLCC	Language, Linguistics, Communication and Culture
MMIB	Management, Marketing and International Business
PLST	Policy Studies
POPM	Population Mental Health Research
POPS	Population Studies

The first digit of the numerical component of course codes is determined by the overarching principle that learning outcomes must demonstrate the appropriateness of the coding to a particular level as detailed in Table 1: Design principles for ANU courses.
The creation of new alpha codes must be approved by the Academic Quality Assurance Committee.
A request must be submitted to the Secretary of the Academic Quality Assurance Committee by the relevant College or Colleges by memorandum and specify:

the four digit alpha code to be introduced;
the formal description;
a brief explanation for its introduction;
how the code is compliant with this procedure;
why the code will be meaningful to students; and
that other areas of the University that may have an interest have also been consulted.

The Academic Quality Assurance Committee will consider the request on the basis of the above points.
All course credit codes must begin with the word “Credit:” and refer to the course-code level at which the credit is awarded.
All exchange codes must begin with the word “Exchange:”
The course code “HONS4XXX” is used to record the final Honours grade for a student, with the course code assigned to 4XXX representing all College one year Honours programs. Additional courses are created for embedded Honours programs where justified to Academic Board on academic or professional accreditation reasons.

5.4 Student workload and units for coursework courses

The average student workload is 130 hours for a six unit course. This includes time spent in scheduled classes and self-directed study time. A student enrolled in units totalling 48 units represents one EFTSL. [HESF 3.1.1.e]
The standard unit value of courses at ANU is six. Courses worth multiples of six are permitted to support internships, fieldwork, international study tours, research projects, theses, and clinical requirements.
Zero unit courses are only permitted where an activity has to be undertaken by a student as a hurdle requirement to undertake future coursework, or to practice in a profession (e.g. Work Experience in Industry (WEI)).
Courses of other unit values are only permitted in the Medical School, in HDR programs, and as 3 unit 8000 level courses that are not co-taught with 4000-level courses. Where such courses are offered, further courses within the discipline must be available to students within the same session (e.g. Summer, Semester One, Autumn) such that their total units of enrolment in that session is divisible by six. Student progress must be monitored to ensure program completion within the full-time duration of the program with the exact unit value set out in the Program Orders and without overloading. Where such courses are offered in programs other than in the Medical School or in HDR programs, courses must be scheduled in summer/autumn/winter/spring sessions and taught in an appropriately intensive mode.

5.5 Course topics and repeat enrolment

Where the title of a course does not provide a meaningful description of the content of a course, either:

For courses in which the topic is pre-set and the same content delivered to each student enrolled in each topic (typically, lecture or seminar based courses), a topic must be assigned to that course before students can enrol. The course must not be available for student enrolment without a topic assigned; or
For courses in which the topic is not pre-set and each student negotiates their own topic (for example thesis, readings, project, and internship courses), a topic must be entered through use of a transcript note for each student at the time that the grade is entered for the course (apart from in cases where the is KU – “Continuing Course”).

The topics assigned under clause 5.5.20 will describe the content of that offering of the course.
To ensure the quality of recurrent offerings at the University, courses described in clause 5.5.20(a) are not to be reused with the same topic, unless that topic for the course has been reviewed and endorsed by the College’s Education Committee within the last five years. If it is intended to offer the same topic multiple times, a separate course is to be created.
Where a particular topic for a course described in clause 5.5.20(a) has not been previously offered, the offering is not required to be approved by College’s Education Committee.
Each academic organisational unit may only have one course as described in clause 5.5.20(a) and one course as described in clause 5.5.20(b) for each alpha code and numeric level (e.g. 1000-level, 2000-level, etc.). This course can then be offered multiple times with multiple topics assigned.
Students who successfully complete a combination of course and topic as described under clause 5.5.20, are unable to undertake the same combination of course and topic again towards an award apart from where their result in the course has been classified as “KU – Continuing Course”.
A student enrolled in two Honours plans may enrol in the same thesis course twice as described in clause 5.5.20(b), but must write on a different topic each time. Any material common to the two theses must be appropriate quoted and cited as common to the two theses in the thesis that is submitted second.
Students may retake a course described in clause 5.5.25 with a different topic assigned.
With the exception of Clause 5.5.27 and courses with a result of “KU – Continuing Course”, students who successfully complete a course are unable to undertake the same course or learning outcomes again towards an Award.

Information	Printable version (DOCX)
Title	accreditation Handbook Part 5 - Course Design
Document Type	HandbookSection
Document Number	ANUP_8742791
Version
Purpose
Audience	Staff, Students
Category	Academic
Topic/ SubTopic	Teaching & Learning

Effective Date	19 Jan 2026
Next Review Date	19 Jan 2031

Responsible Officer:	Pro Vice Chancellor (Education and Digital)
Approved By:	Academic Board
Contact Area	Division of Student Administration and Academic Services
Authority:
Delegations	Is this policy a source policy for a delegation? - Does this update affect/impact any delegations created by this policy document? Delegations Created By this policy? Delegations relevant to this policy? 0

5. Course design

5.1 Course design principles

Table 1: Design principles for ANU courses

5.2 Modes of course delivery

Table 2: Modes of delivery for ANU courses [consistent with HESF 3.1.1.b]

5.3 Course codes

Table 3: Available course alpha [subject] codes

Table 4: Course alpha [subject] codes against which new courses cannot be created

5.4 Student workload and units for coursework courses

5.5 Course topics and repeat enrolment

Information