Student-Led Personal Development Planning and the
Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR): A Report on
Some Preliminary Consultation
Helen Tattam - [email protected]
Stephen Wise- [email protected]
The University of Sheffield
www.sheffield.ac.uk
The introduction of the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) is catalysing the reform of
processes and systems relating to student data, and prompting wider institutional development
across the United Kingdom’s higher education sector.4 The University of Sheffield has been an
active participant in national HEAR trial work, and is now implementing the HEAR for all
undergraduate students commencing study at the University from September 2012 onwards. It is
committed to realising the HEAR’s full potential, not only as a summative exit document that
provides evidence of students’ university achievements, but also as a formative tool to help
students plan for their wider personal and professional development. With the rise of the higher
education employability agenda that has accompanied the 2012-13 tuition fees regime, Sheffield
is therefore taking the opportunity to re-think wider processes relating to personal development
planning (PDP), as efforts are made to embed the HEAR effectively at the institution for the longer
term.
Sheffield is exploring how the HEAR can act as a formative tool in collaboration with its Department
of Geography, which is reviewing the structure of its PDP scheme. The current scheme is based
on a series of regular meetings with each student’s personal tutor. Limitations on staff time do not
allow for comprehensive annual review sessions with every individual, however, and as Geography
does not have a strong vocational focus it is: (i) difficult to embed PDP into the curriculum in a way
that is meaningful and engaging for all; (ii) hard to provide a clear motivation for all students to do
PDP. The proposed solutions to these problems are to develop a student-led scheme, in which
students play a more active role, and to explore how the HEAR can support PDP, including the
idea of using the HEAR to reward PDP engagement.
These ideas were discussed at a seminar that we ran at the Centre for Recording Achievement’s
2013 conference (21 November 2013),5 and at a University of Sheffield employability conference
(25 March 2014).6 These consultation activities have revealed general agreement that PDP should
For an account of the HEAR’s conception, development and implementation, see ‘Bringing it all together:
introducing the HEAR’, available at http://www.hear.ac.uk/reports (accessed 6 May 2014).
5 Attended by nineteen delegates, from a variety of higher education institutions, the Higher Education
Academy and the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.
6 Led by the Careers Service, and attended by academic and Professional Services staff.
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