Continuing Our MAPP of the World: A View of MAPP Across the Pond
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University of East London - Stratford Campus, University House
In our April 2020 post, MAPP Magazine caught up with Therese Sheedy, President of University of Melbourne’s MAPP Alumni Association to talk about MAPP “down under” and connections between MAPPsters from around the globe that were sparked at the 6th World Congress of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) in July 2019. Now we turn to Rosie Hancock (C ‘13) to hear about her experience as a lecturer at the University of East London’s Master of Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology (MAPPCP) programme.
I’m writing this article as some alumni have expressed interest in what it’s like to teach or learn positive psychology outside of the United States. I taught at UPenn MAPP as an Assistant Instructor on three MAPP modules the year after I finished MAPP. I have also been a lecturer at the University of East London in their Master of Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology (MAPPCP) programme from 2017 to 2019, where I was jointly responsible for the content and teaching of the main positive psychology module: Perspectives on Wellbeing. I’m going to walk you through some high level similarities and differences in the two programmes.
Firstly, I’d like to talk about the similarities between the courses. Obviously the topics taught are similar, although UPenn MAPP has more depth as it completely focuses on positive psychology research and assignments, while more than half the teaching time at UEL is dedicated to coaching and related research. At UEL, a wide range of students is the norm: men and women, old and young, with widely varying backgrounds from different countries. Enthusiasm from both students and faculty is very strong on all the courses – everyone is there because they want to be, inspired by the subject material, and keen to learn. I would say there’s a great deal in common between students and faculty for precisely this reason: we’re all part of the same larger tribe.
Having said that, under the surface the two programmes are set up and run very differently, with different target audiences and approaches. I’ll cover a few of the main differences I experienced, but do bear in mind that things are changing all the time, particularly as a result of Covid-19, so some of my comments will be out of date.
The University of East London was the first university in Europe to offer a MAPP degree, starting in 2006. They also offered a Masters in Coaching Psychology, and a few years ago they decided to merge the two courses, because of demand from both the coaching and the positive psychology students. Their current MAPPCP offering is the first in the world to cover both topics from a research-based academic perspective, and has been accredited as Master Practitioner training by the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) since last year. There are both on campus (full-time for one year, lectures every 3rd weekend) and distance learning options (full-time over one year or part-time over two years).
While UEL MAPP started with a similar class size to UPenn, there are now many more students each year at UEL than at UPenn: over 220 students enrolled in my class in 2018-19, of whom about 80 were on campus students. There are a large number of international students due to the distance learning options. This diversity adds a great deal of interest to discussions.
The UEL programme is an academic master’s degree, requiring a traditional research project culminating in a journal article that is ideally publishable. The entry requirements are those of a traditional master’s degree: an undergraduate degree in a related field with a reasonable GPA, plus evidence of proficiency in English (IELTS Level 6.0 for non-native speakers). No limits are placed on class size, and there is no interview.
In the UEL curriculum, there are two positive psychology modules, two coaching psychology modules and two research modules, the second of which is the research project and resulting article. Many of the UEL students are planning a career change into coaching with a focus on positive psychology. It’s an interesting mix, because the positive psychology side of things is very academic, with only an academic paper required as the assignment at the end of each module (albeit discussing the impact of trying out several positive psychology interventions). However, the coaching psychology side of things, while having an academic basis, is very practical. Coaching practice and supervision is done in small groups, and students are required to do at least 50 hours of coaching, plus submit recordings and evaluations of their own coaching.
The student experience is very different to that of UPenn’s MAPP, even for the on-campus students. The large class size makes it difficult to get to know everyone, and there are no group assignments, so no small cohort to get to know well either. Also, the students who are part-time take modules across two sets of full-time students. Although there is a sense of camaraderie for the students, it was not as tight-knit as was my experience at UPenn. The alumni group is not strongly organized, so even though the UEL has been running a MAPP programme almost as long as UPenn, there’s no ready vehicle for connection to the wider UEL MAPP community once students have graduated.
The teaching is also very different. While the programme is taught on campus every 3rd weekend in term-time, each module gets a whole day (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) each weekend, which is taught by at most two UEL instructors. While I was teaching, there were very few guest lecturers, and these were usually previous UEL MAPP lecturers who joined for an hour or two. There were no international speakers. For distance learning, the UEL lecturers record their lectures, and then run online webinars every 3rd weekend. Note: this is changing for students starting in September this year, as UEL is investing in more resources for distance learning across all their courses, plus allowing flexibility so students can do some of the course via distance learning and some on-campus.
One final difference between UEL and UPenn? Cost. The UEL MAPPCP programme fees are £10,740 for this year, on-campus or distance learning, or about US$13,500 at today’s exchange rate
As I mentioned earlier, there is no alumni organisation for the UEL MAPP and MAPPCP programmes. This means that although there must be over 1500 UEL MAPP and MAPPCP alumni, there is no easy way to contact them. Given the United Kingdom’s data protection rules, the university cannot give out personal information even to current students and lecturers. While every year some of the students try to sort something out, as far as I know no one has succeeded in creating a unified alumni association, although I know there has been a Facebook group operating since 2015, with about 130 members. If anyone wants to build connections with UEL MAPP and MAPPCP alumni (or current students), I’m happy to put you in touch with my contacts at the university.
I’m very happy I’ve had the chance to experience both programmes, as there are strengths to each. I think either is a great opportunity to learn positive psychology and related skills, and to give a boost of wellbeing (once the study is over!).
