Curriculum Innovation for Student Success and Institutional Growth

Dr. Ken Powell, Associate Dean (Student Success), Canterbury Christ Church University

Dr. Ken Powell the Director of Curriculum at Canterbury Christ Church University. With a background in teaching, strategic planning and curriculum design, he leads transformational projects that align educational innovation with institutional vision. His leadership is defined by collaboration, sector alignment and an unwavering commitment to preparing students for the evolving demands of today’s workforce.

Recognizing Ken’s visionary leadership, this article shares his approach to curriculum innovation grounded in collaboration, sector alignment, and inclusivity. Drawing from his diverse career—from business ownership to secondary education leadership—he emphasizes the value of long-term planning, adaptive thinking, and support systems in shaping successful curriculum leadership.

A Career Shaped by Strategy and Support

I think my defining experience was a combination of studying for my PhD (which required long-term planning), running my own small business which required a good strategy and then training to be a teacher and becoming a Head of Technology in a secondary school. These all taught me the importance of strategy, effective planning and being able to think ahead while being a teacher really supported my understanding of curriculum design, development and how to work within externally imposed constraints.

I was lucky to have managers who recognized my neurodivergence and helped me develop skills I struggled with. Without that support, I am sure I would not have been able to progress as I did.

Aligning Programs with Purpose and Student Needs

At CCCU, we ran a strategic project (under the auspices of the PVC Education & Student Experience) to update our previous Academic Framework. We had to deliver on the goals of Vision 2030, the recently approved strategic plan, while ensuring a curriculum that would maintain our current key selling point of high graduate employability within the evolving sector constraints.

We worked with over 250 academic and professional service staff to develop our new Framework, regulations, calendars and a Learning Design approach which resonated with the University’s values while ensuring that industry relevance, interdisciplinary working and sustainability were golden threads through all our courses.

“True curriculum leadership means balancing tradition with transformation. When change is driven by collaboration, not compliance, institutions can stay ahead of sector shifts, empowering students with skills that matter and staff with a sense of shared purpose.”

We have also ensured, during the 6-month period when we redesigned and reapproved our entire portfolio, that industry experts were given as much of a voice as external advisors in the revalidation process.

Leading Change through Inclusive Planning

I think the main challenge has been ensuring that the University’s portfolio and curriculum can adapt to the changing external environment, especially at a time when staff can feel overwhelmed by the changes.

We have tried to ensure that the various projects (the new Academic Framework, a full portfolio review and implementation of Courseloop as our curriculum management system) all involved staff as active participants all the way through the process.

From ensuring that school academic staff led and proposed the final adjustments for the portfolio review to having a core group of 25 academic and professional staff choosing Courseloop through a new procurement process to ensure their views were prioritized, having the people who needed to use the new processes and systems making key decisions rather than things being imposed top-down gives a greater sense of agency and therefore buy-in.

Ensuring Curriculum Keeps Pace with Sector Demands

We are very lucky to have academic staff with great sector links in all these areas which allow us to both anticipate changes but also to have a voice in the future direction. As an institution, we started as a teacher training college and added health and social care as our first major expansion, so these areas have always been a core part of the University’s identity. We moved very early into health and policing apprenticeships, for example, so we are now a reasonably large University provider with over 98 percent of our apprentices working in the public sector.

These sector links are the foundation of our really strong partnerships with the NHS, Police and businesses. It is due to these partnerships that we can insist all our courses are co-produced with industry experts which ensures our graduates are equipped with the skills needed for employment.

Skills Future Curriculum Leaders Need to Navigate Change

I believe that there will always be a need for academics that are prepared to move outside their subject area to provide an overview of the sector and future trends while also considering how to ensure colleagues are informed about what is coming down the line so that their institution can be ahead of the game. Although these skills are useful in many areas (learning & teaching, quality, employer engagement) they are essential for curriculum leaders as the job involves balancing many competing priorities and an understandable desire from academics to hold on to the way things have worked previously. Being able to understand what needs to change and then working with colleagues to ensure that the change is through choice, rather than enforced by external circumstances, allows for time to reflect and consider which a rarity in the modern Higher Ed environment sometimes.

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