Higher professional education courses in the United Kingdom

The need for higher professional education courses has been well established by young principals, medical educationalists and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP, 1985a, 1987 and 1990; Regional Advisers, 1989). In recent years there has been an increase in their development. However there is still a small number catering for a very small group of potential learners. These courses have often been seen as an extension of vocational training. Seven such courses were identified and evaluated during this project. The method and the results of the evaluation are presented. The development of higher professional education courses needs to be tailored to particular local needs and any central planning can be stifling. In our project there was often inadequate organizational and financial support available. The courses proved to be demanding for the participants in terms of time and required motivation. Despite this, attendance was good. Much of the content of the courses laid emphasis on practice management, human behaviour, and medicine and society, which reflected the perceived needs of both organizers and participants. Where formative evaluation of the courses was carried out, this appeared to have an important effect on course development. However fewer than 50% of the participants were involved to any extent in any planning of the courses, which is clearly contrary to the recognized principles of adult of self-directed learning (Brookfield, 1986). Despite this, participants as a whole appreciated the courses and the effect these had on their work, a large proportion reporting a significant change in cognitive and affective areas of learning. Recommendations are made for future organizers of higher professional education courses.