The paper describes our experience in teaching a database systems module that is compulsory to all final year computing and information systems students with a diverse range of backgrounds and technical abilities. This challenge has driven the attempt to develop a student-centred approach to learning and teaching. The main goal of the module is to build on database systems concepts that students were introduced to in the second year studies and cover more advanced database concepts. The coursework has been designed on the basis of object relational database systems. Our goal is to expose students to a non trivial database system development. The modelling element of the coursework is done with UML class diagrams and the application logic is implemented in user defined types' methods either in PL/SQL or JAVA.