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Teaching

You are taught through a combination of experiential workshops, lectures, seminars and practical sessions. Experiential workshops take a variety of formats and are intended to encourage learning through experiencing and the exploration of personal awareness through this process. Seminars enable the discussion and development of understanding of topics covered in lectures, and skills practice sessions are focused on developing counselling skills and the application of theory into practice.

In addition, meetings with your personal academic tutor are scheduled on at least 4 occasions in the first year and three occasions in the second year.

You have the opportunity to undertake a work-based learning placement of 50hrs in the first year of the course, incorporating a work-related project supervised by a work-based mentor and the course tutor.

In the second year, you have the opportunity to undertake a counselling placement of 100hrs, overseen by work-based supervisors and the course tutor.

Contact time

In-person teaching will take place one day per week (approx. 7 hours). Contact time will include lectures, discussions and debate, the use of case studies, skills practice, large and small group activities, reflective practice and experiential work, guided independent learning, recording of practice.

Independent self-study

In addition to the taught contact time, work-based learning, practice hours, supervision and placement activities, students are expected to undertake personal self-study (approx. 26 hours per week).

Typically, this will involve completing journal writing and professional portfolio activities, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library and online, and preparing coursework assignments and presentations.

Formative assessment will include preparation for assignment writing, peer and tutor feedback on skills work, group process work, reflective practice opportunities, experiential work and observations. 

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes highly qualified therapists and experienced academics, together with supervision expertise and technical support.

Teaching is informed by research and consultancy, with 80 per cent of course lecturers having undertaken postgraduate research and have a higher education teaching qualification.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or 'formative' assignments. Each module has one or more formal or 'summative' assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade.

Assessment methods comprise a range of coursework assessments such as journals, personal-development plans, reflective reports, leaflet design, portfolios, case studies and presentations, as well as counselling skills assessments. In the first year there is an independent work-based learning project and in the second year an independent research project.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the year of study: The formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1

• 1 x 2 journal extracts
• 1 personal-development plan
• 1 individual presentation
• 2 group presentations
• 5 reflective reports
• 1 counselling skills assessment
• 1 work-based learning portfolio (including project report)

Year 2

• 1 x 2 journal extracts
• 1 personal-development plan
• 2 individual presentations
• 2 reflective reports
• 1 leaflet design
• 1 case study
• 2 counselling skills assessments
• 1 counselling placement portfolio (including reflective report)
• 1 independent research project (including research proposal)

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments, counselling skills and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutor and module tutors as appropriate.

We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please