ABSTRACT
The primary focus of this study is on the definition, description, and interpretation of courses and institutional aims and activities. Before we turn directly to a consideration of these, it is important to set both the analytical model we have propounded and the views of those engaged in the processes on the ground alongside some British policy statements which illustrate the debates to which all of this relates, and to which in many respects it is a response. Perceptions of course and institutional goals are conditioned by public expectations and rhetoric, and by financial and political considerations, as well as by the academic and professional logics of the courses and institutions themselves.
