Best practices

The Master of Professional Practice

Users: Training providers (public), Industry, SMEs | Theme: X | Action: X | Beneficiaries: Training providers (public), Industry, SMEs, Learners (STEM background), Labour force (employed), Women

University of Limerick

University of Limerick

Martin Hayes

The programme on offer is the Master of Professional Practice. (MPP). It is marketed as “Ireland’s first interdisciplinary stackable Master’s degree”. The MPP directly addresses the UN’s sustainable development goal of quality
further education in a highly novel fashion by supporting students to become designers of their own learning experience. In this new mode of learning, the individual, in collaboration with their employer, develops the knowledge that they need to strengthen their professional skills by making active decisions about the direction of their programme of study. The MPP is defined in multiple different ways over a number of years through the stacking of three standalone professional diplomas. The specific ‘next step’ choice that a student makes after completing one Diploma is entirely their own.

The challenge?

The MPP subverts the traditional postgraduate choice of deeper specialisation versus the acquisition of broader, more general skills. Rather than making a specific commitment to a particular discipline, students are given options where, if they wish, they can quickly acquire trans-disciplinary skills on top of deep functional or domain expertise in core areas that are relevant to their own career progression. Such a ‘pi-shaped or T-shaped’ professional qualification mirrors the customisation that people now expect in their daily lives and allows students to stack qualifications that suit their particular professional pathway as they navigate their own career path. The flexibility of the MPP, recognises that while people are busy at work, they can still successfully upskill and build expertise in an accelerated fashion, following a path that suits them, with peer support in a collaborative community of practice.

Our solution

The MPP is a 90 credit NFQ (National Framework of Qualifications) Level 9 programme that enables students to curate a curriculum
that is tailored to their professional needs in 30 credit blocks. The curriculum is carefully designed using a “learn-do” approach, a dynamic approach to education and skill development that emphasises hands-on, experiential learning alongside practical skills that can be readily transferred into the workplace. It is also designed with student needs at its core, ensuring that work-based learners can engage with the curriculum in scaffolded, bite-sized, incremental components with flexibility designed in to facilitate students making their own choice about the next 30 credit block that they register for.

Outcomes

The programme’s success has seen it be shortlisted in the Best Master’s degree category at the Irish Higher Education Awards. We have successfully graduated two cohorts of students who previously had found the capstone project as a barrier to progression. This might be for time poverty or company IP reasons. Particularly in the SME case, the release of IP in the form of a project can be a particular issue. The flexible nature of this masters degree programme has also proven attractive to women who are returning to the workforce. The gender breakdown thus far has been 60:40 Female:Male, which s unusual in the Science and Engineering faculties.

Key takeaways

Feedback from faculty, staff, and students feeds into the integration of third-party Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) applications. These ICT tools include Peer Collaboration Tool: Promote critical thinking and teamwork by facilitating peer reviews and collaborative assignments, Accessibility Tool: Ensure inclusivity by providing alternative formats, transcription services, and tools to help create accessible content, Advanced Quiz Functionality tool: Supports adaptive quizzes, offering real-time evaluations for STEM subjects like coding and data analysis. This allows students to receive immediate feedback and actionable insights to refine their skills, Portfolio Tool: The existing tool within Brightspace was deemed unusable for UL’s needs and another tool has been procured. This tool will enable students to document and showcase their academic and extracurricular achievements, aiding career readiness and professional development.