Staffordshire University Personal Development Planning Policy ...

• Improving retention: A common reason for students to leave university early is that
they feel they lack the skills or support they need to complete their course or that they
feel disengaged from the academic experience. PDP, through its focus on the personal
development needs of the individual (especially with the support of academic tutors),
can help to remedy this.
• Promoting student recruitment: As employability performance indicators are
increasingly a factor in students’ choice of university, a university with an excellent
record for the employability of its graduates is likely to attract more new students.
• Supporting widening participation: With the increasingly diversity of students now
studying at the University the opportunity to tailor a student’s learning experience to
their individual development needs through PDP (instead of adopting a “one-size fits all”
approach to teaching and learning) is likely to result in greater engagement in the
learning process by students from diverse backgrounds.
• Deepening learning: Facilitating a learning cycle of doing, reflecting, theorising and
planning through PDP-related activities can lead to deeper learning as students become
familiar with the process of reflecting on their learning experiences and using this to
enhance their personal development.
• Bringing cohesion: The modular framework can, at times, lead to a fragmented
academic experience for students in which teaching and learning is delivered by
different people in discrete chunks, with few connecting threads or opportunities for
synoptic work. PDP can be regarded as the “glue” which holds an academic experience
together in a way which is meaningful for an individual student, as students focus on
their learning, their personal goals and their holistic development over time, drawing on
their work-related and extra-curricular (as well as their academic) learning experiences.
2. Stakeholders
This policy is for all students, full time, part time, undergraduate and postgraduate, on-campus and
distance learners, and SURF. The policy will also assist all University staff in their support of
student learning, guidance and progression and their own personal development.
The overall PDP policy implementation and leadership is the responsibility of the Academic
Development Institute who, particularly during the implementation phase for PDP in the University
from September 2004 to September 2007, will facilitate the undertaking of appropriate review and
evaluation of this policy, its use and development.
3. Benefits to Stakeholders
3.1. Students
PDP will help students:
• Integrate their personal and academic development and improve their capacity to plan
their own academic programmes.
• Be more effective in monitoring and reviewing their own progress.
• Be more aware of how they are learning and what different teaching and learning
strategies are trying to achieve.
• Recognise and discuss their own strengths and weaknesses.
• Identify opportunities for learning and personal development outside the curriculum.
Staffordshire University Personal Development Planning Policy
PDP Steering & Implementation Group
December 2004
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