The strength of the University of Surrey model of undergraduate education is that it recognises, values and encourages experiential learning through the professional training year. In work or other social contexts outside formal education our main resource for learning is our experiences and the people we interact with. Enabling students to become effective learners through their experiences is another dimension of preparing learners for the complexities they will encounter in their professional lives.

SCEPTrE’s educational development work has focused on:

• Support for teachers to develop experience-rich curricular Curriculum Innovation Awards
• Creating new, experience-rich co-curricular experiences for students (Cultural Academy and Enterprise Academy)
• Developing and implementing a Learning through Experience Certificate
• Story Telling Competitions to reveal learning embedded in past experiences
• Working in partnership with a National Teaching Fellow (Dr Colin Beard) to develop and pilot an immersive Experiential Academy to provide experience-rich professional development
• Organising a national conference on ‘The Power of Immersive Experience’ January 2008
• Development of a Life-Wide Learning Award
• Proposals for a Surrey Award to encourage, recognise and value learning that is mainly gained by students through experiences outside their academic programme
• Conceptual development of the idea of life-wide learning