Staffordshire University Personal Development Planning Policy ...

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• 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 Page 2 of 5
• Be better prepared for seeking employment or self-employment and be more able to relate what they have learnt to the requirements of employers. • Be better prepared for the demands of continuing professional or vocational development when they enter employment. 3.2. Academic Staff PDP will help academic staff: • Improve the quality of experience for tutors and tutees when it is linked to personal tutoring systems. • Make more effective use of off-campus opportunities for learning, such as work placements. • By helping students to be more independent/autonomous learners. • By creating a mechanism through which career-related skills and capabilities can be recorded. • By improving their understanding of the development of individual students and their ability to provide more meaningful employment references on their behalf. 3.3. The University and Academic Faculties PDP will help the University and the Faculties: • Facilitate more effective monitoring of student progress. • Develop more effective academic support and guidance systems, thus resulting in better retention and support of students from increasingly diverse backgrounds. • Enhance their capacity to demonstrate the quality of support they are giving to students in external review processes. 4. University Commitments As articulated in the University Employability Policy (2004), the University’s stated aim is to provide all its students with “the opportunity to engage in a Personal Development Planning programme 5 while at the University, as well as having access to tailored support and relevant opportunities.” 6 While a student’s learning and development through PDP will not be explicitly assessed, in some cases specific PDP-related activities (such as reflective pieces work or skills analysis work) may be formatively or summatively assessed or constitute a focus for peer- or self-assessment within appropriate modules. This policy is in accordance with the QAA’s ‘Guidelines on HE Progress Files’ (2000) and the University’s Commitment to Equality and Diversity (2003). 4.1. QAA Minimum Expectations The minimum expectations for PDP are as follows: • At the start of a programme, students will be introduced to the opportunities for PDP. • Students will be provided with opportunities for PDP at each stage of their programme. 5 The term ‘programme’ here refers to a structured learning experience which continues throughout a student’s time at the University, in which PDP-related learning opportunities (either embedded within the curriculum or supported by personal tutorials) are linked together in an explicit and coherent way. 6 Staffordshire University Employability Policy, 2004 Staffordshire University Personal Development Planning Policy PDP Steering & Implementation Group December 2004 Page 3 of 5
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