The Progressive Mastery Framework translates SMU’s educational philosophy into a shared structure for programme-level curriculum design. It brings deliberate, programme-wide coherence to how students develop human-centred competencies and AI fluency across their learner journey.
Learning is structured across three levels — Foundational Competencies, Applied Skills, and Integration and Impact — spanning the full undergraduate journey from Year 1 through to capstone. The levels are not strictly sequential; a student may be developing foundational competencies in one course while applying AI tools in another. What matters is that by the time a student completes their programme, they have had the opportunity to develop and demonstrate all three dimensions of the graduate profile.
The diagram below illustrates how the Progressive Mastery Framework sequences competency development across an undergraduate programme.
For more information on the Progressive Mastery Framework and what it means for your programmes, please refer to the PVO Education website.