Graduate Diploma in Professional Practice

The Graduate Diploma in Professional Practice is a Bespoke course which gives you the freedom to choose from more than 500 units across the full breadth of university subject areas, and assemble them into your own unique course.

Course Aims

The Graduate Diploma in Professional Practice is a highly flexible award which aims to develop contemporary professionals according to their particular career development needs. The course develops students' leadership, problem-solving and decision-making skills to help diagnose, analyse and solve real-world problems. Students engage in collaborative activities that will enhance their ability to communicate persuasively with a range of stakeholders.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: curate a compelling professional identity and philosophy, and demonstrate the ability to critically communicate this to both specialist and non-specialist audiences; demonstrate professional leadership capabilities, identify professional opportunities or challenges and devise strategies to respond or resolve using an evidence-based approach; model specialist knowledge, research, and communication skills that contribute to life-long application in their professional career; and apply knowledge and skills to demonstrate autonomy, expert judgement and responsibility in conducting, reporting and reflecting on professional practice.

Graduate Attributes

Knowledge of a Discipline Knowledge of a discipline is taught in the elective units in the Graduate Diploma in Professional Practice. Through guided contact with their academic concierge, students will select the units that constitute meaningful and valuable learning for them. This may involve selecting units from just one discipline for a deep course experience or up to three disciplines if they require a broader, inter-disciplinary curriculum. Communication Skills Communication skills are taught, practised and assessed throughout this course. Students will utilise advanced cognitive and communication skills, tools and digital technologies to communicate appropriately and persuasively with a range of stakeholders. Students will develop oral, written and presentation skills relevant to professional contexts through assessments such as portfolio building. Problem Solving This graduate attribute is taught, practised and assessed throughout the course using scenarios requiring students to use advanced cognitive and critical thinking skills to identify professional issues, and to critically analyse and evaluate the relevant theories and concepts to construct professional solutions. Information Literacy Information literacy is taught, practised and assessed throughout the course as students need to identify, critically evaluate and synthesise relevant information drawn from a range of sources in order to analyse complex professional-related issues. Ethical Conduct and Social Responsibility Throughout the course, ethical conduct and social responsibility is taught, practised and assessed. Students need to reflect on the principles of professional and social responsibility and critically apply these to a range of ethical issues and scenarios. Lifelong Learning Lifelong learning is taught and assessed in this course through reflective tasks that encourage critical analysis of professional experience, and appreciation of professional practice as a dynamic discipline. Independence and Collaboration Students function as individual professionals throughout the duration of the course, but also develop collaborative skills through interaction with both other students and the academic concierge, and demonstrate this in assessment contexts such as a professional portfolio.