The tutor feedback is extensive, specific and, we believe, extremely helpful to the students’ learning. The tutor team should be commended for creating a learning context that is excellent: the students should be commended for some impressive achievements on a pioneering programme".

Prof. Margaret Ledwith (2009)
Emeritus Professor of Community Development and Social Justice
University of Cumbria

Professor Gary Craig (2009)
Emeritus Professor of Social Justice
University of Hull and
Visiting Professor, University of Durham

“It is exciting for me to read the students’ essays, especially where the emphasis on praxis starts to shine through. Communities deserve the very best practitioners possible if we are to make the difference that marginalised people deserve, and at times I felt that promise materialising. There is a confidence in the writing of the students who read and connect ideas with the practical expression of their work in community. Where this is achieved, work is amongst the best that I have seen in our field.

This can only be achieved when there is an excellent learning context which gives rise to the best potential of students. The evidence I see from the tutor comments is that students are pushed to achieve their very best by being challenged and directed in quite specific engagement with the students’ writing. The programme engages with theory in the light of the current political context and policy developments. Consequently, the students are more readily focused on the way this impacts on their practice. Less confident students struggle with making these connections, but no more than the challenge faced by all programmes of this kind. On the whole, I am encouraged by the skills the tutor team demonstrate in the development of praxis, thus ensuring that theory is not left behind in the academy”.

Dr. Margaret Ledwith (External Examiner) 2006
Reader in Community Development, St. Martin’s College, Lancaster

“The programme is clearly relevant, current and exciting for its students and tutors. I am impressed with the overall quality of the work that I have read. Where students make that vital link with critical analysis, their confidence shines through. They engage with academic theory in a critical way in relation to the fundamental ideology of community learning and development relating this to the role of the practitioner in a way that is inspiring”.

Dr. Margaret Ledwith (External Examiner) 2005
Reader in Community Development, St. Martin’s College, Lancaster