Today I write to you from sunny Wollongong,
where I am attending the April HODSPA (Heads of Departments and Schools of
Psychology Association) meeting where all the heads of psychology from around
Australia meet to discuss critical issues for the discipline and profession of
psychology.
It has been great to catch up with colleagues from around Australia
and to share our combined concerns and interests for our schools and
departments. Some of the important areas of discussion has been around the new
APAC requirements. For those of you who are not familiar with the process, we
teach psychology to a very strict standard with rigid compliance requirements,
and our compliance with these standards gets assessed every 5 years. For the
first time in a long time, the compliance requirements will change to allow us
to be more flexible and creative. This change will come into place next year
and affect us in our next accreditation round.
On the back of the new
accreditation requirements, there was also much discussion around the
indigenisation of the undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum. Mem
Mahmut gave a talk about his work
around collecting ideas of ‘best practice’ from around the world to advise us
on how to do this in an effective, authentic and sensitive way. Mem has been a
visitor to our school in the past, and I caught up with him over lunch and
reinforced our support and commitment to his work. I am looking forward to
having him visit again later this year.
The afternoon discussions revolved
around how we can provide opportunities to make psychology students more
work-ready. What are the skills that psychology students need after 3 and 4
years of study to enter the workforce, given that many students don’t go on to
clinical professions? What are the work-ready skills that our PD students need
given that less than 1% of STEM PhD graduates go on to full-time academic
careers? How can we make our students more future-proof, confident and
employable as they move into the workforce? This is an exciting time to study
Psychology as the discipline and profession changes and reinvents itself to be
more adaptable, creative and responsive to the needs of the individual and
society. These are discussions that we will continue in our school and I value
your input and feedback.
Kristen
