FOUR YEARS ON – A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW OF THE DIP. H.E. IN ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES AT AVERY HILL COLLEGE, 1979–83

A thorough process of evaluation, both ongoing throughout the four years and an in-depth exercise in 1982, prior to submission of the revised course to CNAA for renewal of approval, has identified the various strengths and weaknesses of the course as a whole, and of constituent parts of the course. Of interest is the extent to which the course has attracted the mature student (75% or more of the students are mature entrants) and the success that these and the other students have had in transferring directly into the third year of degree programmes at linked institutions. Also of note is the extent to which students have been attracted to the notion of taking a broadly‐based programme of study for two years, which has enabled them to keep their options open for future direction, and the extent that students have subsequently been able to determine a direction for further study by the end of the second year. Another point of interest, and one which was entirely unanticipated, is the way that a proportion of the entrants, which was recruited via the Professional and Executive Register, obviously viewed the generalist study in a course such as this as a means of career reorientation, as well as a route back into Higher Education. All these points have served to vindicate the open policy operated in the selection of students joining the course.