HRD programme provision in the UK: past, present and future

Purpose: To report on a UFHRD Honorarium project to identify and map current HRD postgraduate level programme provision in the UK; to review changes in postgraduate level HRD programme provision over the past 20 years; and, through a neo-institutionalist perspective, to discuss the significance and future implications of changes in programme provision for HRD as a field of practice and academic discipline.

Design: First, an audit of UK HRD programme provision was undertaken to establish current provision. Second, a symposium was convened at the UFHRD conference 2014. This was recorded and transcribed.

Findings: There are findings about a mixed economy of HRD programme providers; shifts in nomenclature whereby programmes in coaching, OD and other practices are featuring prominently in the landscape of HRD provision. We characterize HRD as having porous boundaries which make sense of the struggle to define HRD as a recognisable, definable field.

Research limitations: We have focused on postgraduate level qualifications in UK, therefore have not examined provision in Europe or HRD provision within undergraduate courses. Both the audit and the symposium represent data gathered at a single moment in time.

Practical and social implications: We identify implications of our findings for HRD programme provision and scholarship, and for the HRD professionalization project.

Originality and value: To our knowledge, no comprehensive database of HRD programme provision in the UK exists. The paper represents a timely, contemporary contribution to debates about HRD as a field of practice and academic discipline.