role permissions in admin/settings/course.php too general

All the administration items beneath the "Courses" node of the tree require a (default) moodle:site/config permission for the user. This means that if you wish to add a sitewide role that simply enables a user to add and edit categories it will not produce an administration entry but you can get to the course/index.php page with editing on by manipulating the url directly.

Contrast this with the users section that works as expected (e.g., you can give someone rights to add users only at the site context)