This paper outlines the various tensions involved in designing science degrees. These include the expectation that the qualification includes elements that are associated with the content area, the desire to ensure all students receive the same quality of learning and that the wider community trusts the qualification. These expectations can be construed as barriers to student centredness which is associated with flexibility, choice and consumer expectations of paying for and receiving goods and services – in the case of higher education – a qualification. The regulatory and student demands of a qualification and how it is delivered reside alongside the views of academic staff about the content and delivery of it, often resulting in assertions that academic freedom includes the right to waive regulatory requirements of qualifications because ‘academics know best’.
