It's really good that the Students' Union is getting involved in PDP - our
union has some involvement but with so many things going on it hasn't
become a priority yet.  At Bradford we have a full-time member of staff
co-ordinating Key Skills and PDP based within Teaching Quality and
Enhancement, and the whole area falls under our Teaching & Learning
strategy which is how I am involved.  We are currently piloting PDP in a
couple of our departments, and in some schools (mainly in the sciences
allied with medicine e.g. pharmacy and the health divisions) pdp has been
going on for a number of years as part of the professional bodies'
requirements.  This means that there are some benefits to rolling out pdp
for all as we have some accumulated best practice and we are improving the
experience for all of our students.

One of the problems is related to the fact that we are linking the QAA 6
key skills in quite heavily with pdp, which is often a turn off for
students as they may have encountered key skills at school and have had a
negative experience.  Also, the other major problem is where to do the
pdp.  Initially the idea was to link it in with the personal tutor system,
which seems to have been unpopular with staff and students alike - the
staff obviously due to workload issues and trying to get their heads round
yet another national initiative, the students for much the same reasons
(they may want their personal tutor time to discuss other matters and "why
do we have to do this anyway").  In some departments where there are
personal/professional/study skills modules pdp is often housed there, but
then there are the related attendance issues of these types of modules.
Other problems revolve around what the pdp should look like - ranges from a
paper-based file reminiscent of Records of Achievement to a completely
online version supported by something like Blackboard.

So, not much to worry about then!
Would be interested in hearing how others have tackled these issues...

Anika

At 11:48 16/07/2003 +0100, you wrote:
>Dear Members,
>Welcome to the PDP list.
>Here at the University of Bath, we have appointed a 0.5 Project Officer for
>PDP, located in the Students' Union. The Union has a sabbatical
>vice-president with an interest in PDP.  Both of us, plus two further SU
>staff, are on a PDP Steering Group with representatives from Registry,
>Careers Advisory Service and Academic staff. So far, Bath has run four
>departmental pilot projects. We have been investigating practice in other
>institutions, with a view to developing and introducing further pilot
>projects here next semester.
>Please let us know what is happening about PDP in your institution: what
>works and what doesn't; what problems and benefits have occured.
>Best wishes,
>Karen Avent (PDP Project Officer)
>Duncan Walker (VP Student Activities & Development)
>University of Bath.

Anika Easy
Student Development Co-ordinator
Room F26c Richmond Building/0.61 Communal Building
University of Bradford
Telephone: 01274-23-5976/3290