How we develop professional capability through the undergraduate curriculum: A WIL Perspective

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How we develop professional capability through
the undergraduate curriculum A WIL Perspective

• Dr Jenny Willis
• SCEPTrE Fellow
• Independent Educational Consultant

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Discussion outlineAGN with QUT 16 April 2010

• University of Surrey context and reputation
• HE is for more than employability
• Professional development structures at the
  University
• The research brief
• Intended outputs
• Difficulties
• Questions for discussion

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How the University markets itself
Discover Your Employability Top for
Jobs University of Surrey graduates are the most
employable of any chartered university in
England. No other university is able to match our
consistently outstanding performance in the
employment league tables. In 2008 (the latest
available statistics), 96.7 per cent of our
graduates entered employment or further study,
compared with the national average of 91 per
cent. This is the best figure of any chartered
university in England. Between 1996 and 2008,
Surrey had an average unemployment rate of just
2.3 per cent, compared with the national average
of 6.3 per cent. This ranks us first
overall. This means that over a 13-year period we
have had the lowest average graduate unemployment
rate of any UK university.
Discover the University of Surrey. Lowest average
unemployment rates for UK universities, 19962008
1 Surrey 2.3 2 Hull 3.5 3 Cambridge 4.1 4
Nottingham 4.2 5 Bristol 4.2 6 Imperial 4.8
Educated for Success Our outstanding employment
record is a clear indication that employers value
the knowledge, skills and experience of Surrey
graduates. 
http//www2.surrey.ac.uk/undergraduate/discover/em
ployability/
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HE Employability?
a set of achievements, understandings and
personal attributes that make individuals more
likely to gain employment and be successful in
their chosen occupations. Yorke Knight 2003
Increasingly, it is the students capacity to
fend for themselves in the wider world that is
coming into view, their capacities to sustain
themselves, to engage with the wider world, to be
resilient and to prosper not just economically
in it. We are witnessing the emergence,
surely, of a curriculum for life. Barnett and
Coate 2005119
to facilitate the development of degree-level
learning through an associated emphasis upon the
reflective learning processes. Moreland 2006
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How does the University develop these
professional competences?

• Professional Training Experience?
• Only 50 annual uptake so what else?

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• Surrey Graduate Skills Statement 2003

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• PDP Strategy expectations by HE level

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The research question
How we develop professional capability through
the undergraduate curriculum? A WIL Perspective
Are there generic core competencies that relate
to becoming professional being developed through
the curriculum and professional training
programmes?
To provide base-line data as part of SCEPTrEs
legacy, with examples of practice to inform
future curriculum development and delivery
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Objectives
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Outputs 1, curriculum maps
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Difficulties 1, inbuilt variability
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Flexibility responsive to different needs and
values how to compare?
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Difficulties 2, access to data
3, validity of data

• Incomplete data on web
• Hard copies of handbooks
• Outdated handbooks
• Central systems that do not support data
  analysis/retrieval
• Staff resistance to interview

Difficulties 4, complexity and variability -how
to present the data?
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Questions arising
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FIN
Dr Jenny Willis Sceptre_jw_at_surrey.ac.uk