Three CPD Frameworks to Transform Your Higher Education Institution
When Continuous Professional Development (CPD) in higher education is done well, it can energize an entire institution and sharpen practice in everything from teaching and curriculum to governance, digital innovation, student support, and knowledge services. It can connect people across roles and departments and turn professional learning into a strategic driver. Too often, though, CPD can be difficult to weave into a coordinated, sustainable effort, leaving staff unsure how their participation connects to longer-term goals or translates into meaningful change in practice.
To provide a more coherent approach to CPD in higher education, OER Africa has developed practical CPD frameworks aimed at three professional roles:
- CPD Framework for Academics
- CPD Framework for Academic and Research Librarians
- CPD Framework for CPD Leaders
Together, these frameworks offer a structured way to strengthen professional practice across your institution. Each one identifies key domains of capability and provides clear descriptors of the competences that each professional role needs in relevant areas. For every capability descriptor, you’ll also find linked resources to help you intentionally develop it in practice.
The frameworks can help your institution to:
- Align CPD with institutional priorities, including digital transformation, equity and inclusion, open knowledge, and organizational resilience.
- Design coherent, multi‑year CPD pathways for different professional roles.
- Use shared language to plan and coordinate CPD activities at departmental, library, and institutional levels.
Whether you are an academic, a librarian, or an institutional leader responsible for CPD design and delivery, the frameworks provide adaptable resources you can use to diagnose capacity needs and plan CPD interventions accordingly. By grounding CPD in these frameworks, institutions can adopt a more purposeful, system‑wide approach that supports better outcomes for staff and students alike.