Personal Development Planning

Personal Development Planning (PDP) is a structured and supported process by which research students undertake to reflect upon their own learning, performance and / or achievement. The process has been specifically designed to provide support for students in planning their personal, educational and career development.

The process involves a range of approaches through which students can reflect on their experiences up to that point, identify goals for the future and record their achievements and skills development during their time at the University of Aberdeen.

Personal development planning is often best seen as development of a reflective, independent, self-directed learning approach and because of this, it is much more valuable than a collection of evidence of attendance at courses. Like many aspects of development it helps you carefully consider your future and enables you to plan a strategy that will best support the fulfilment of your future plans, within the context of your understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses.

As an illustration, consider the following summary of activities recorded by a research student as part of his PDP activities while studying here: 

The Graduate School is fully committed to personal development planning, and has integrated monitoring of research student training and development into its monitoring and progression arrangements. All students are required to have an initial PDP discussion with their supervisors within three months of commencing their studies; the outcome is recorded using the Initial Personal Development Plan Form.