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Abstract
Personal development planing (PDP) is now a nationally required part of undergraduate and postgraduate education in the United Kingdom. Little is known about how universities in general are implementing personal development plans, nor how engaged students will become in compiling a set of records of their learning and progress, which they themselves make and keep. The aim of this article was to discover how higher education institutions were approaching PDP, to gather primary and secondary data on the implementation of PDP across the sector, and to identify good practice. Telephone interviews were carried out with a snowball sample of academics from a range of English universities, both pre and post 1992 institutions. The findings fell into two categories: those relating to process and those relating to the more complex conceptual elements of PDP implementation. The process findings indicated that a wide variety of approaches is being taken, that there is heavy reliance on computer‐based tools and that support for staff and the nurturing of internal champions was a significant part of successful implementation. Good practice within the conceptual aspects of PDP would include a clear vision of where responsibility lies for PDP within a university, a shared understanding of the purpose of PDP and the promotion of a culture which engages both students and staff. Overall, the research showed that implementing personal development planning is a continuing learning process for universities in England.