This glossary contains definitions of Open University and Higher Education acronyms.
To browse for an alphabetical listing of existing acronyms just enter the first letter.

P&C

Policy and Control

PA

The Publishers Association

PAB

Personal Address Book

PAC

Public Accounts Committee

PACE

Personal and Cultural Education

PAD

Practice Assessment Document

PADS

Projects and Dissertations System

PAF

Permission Agreement Form

PALACES

Public Associate Lecturers Alumni Customers Enquirers Students

PALS

Peer Associate Lecturer Support

PARC

Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation

PARLE

Politics Active Research Learning Environment

PaSS

Proactive Student Support

PAWS

PDF Archiving and Workflow System

PB

Print Buyer

PBPL

Practice-based Professional Learning

PC

Postgraduate Certificate

PC

Prior consideration

PCDA

Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship

PCDL

Professional and Career Development Loan

PCE

Post-Compulsory Education

PCE

Popular and Cultural Education

PCM

Professional Certificate in Management

PD

Postgraduate Diploma

PD

Programme director

PDA

Personal Digital Assistant

PDC

Programme Development Committee (now CUDC)

PDC

Publications Despatch Centre-DES

PDET

Professional Development in Educational Technology

PDF

Photocopy Declaration Form

PDF

Portable Document Format

PDG

Policy Development Group

PDM

Professional Diploma in Management

PDP

Policy on Personal Development Plans

PDP

Personal Development Planning

PDP

Product Development Project

PEARL

Practical Experimentation by Accessible Remote Learning

PEARL

Personal Educational Advice for Rural Learners

PEAS

Pre Entry Advisory Service

PEF

Placement Education Facilitator

PELT

Programme for Embedding Learning Technology

PEQ

Previous Educational Qualification

per

Public Engagement with Research

PERCIS

Personal Computer Inventory System

PERS

Personnel Division

PETA

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

PFB

Positive Feedback

PFI

Private Finance Initiative

PGCE

Post Graduate Certificate in Education

PGCE

Professional Graduate Certificate in Education

PGCHE

Post Graduate Certificate of Higher Education

PGCPSE

PostGraduate Certificate in Professional Studies in Education

PGCTLHE

Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

PGDip

Postgraduate Diploma

PGDPSE

PostGraduate Diploma in Professional Studies in Education

PGP

Postgraduate Programme

PGPO

Postgraduate Programme Office

PGR

Post-graduate research

PGRT

Postgraduate Research Tutor

PGSS

Postgraduate Students Society

PhD

Doctor of Philosophy

PHE

Production Handover Envelope

PHY AST

Physics & Astronomy

PI

Performance Indicator

PI

Personal Identifier

PI

Persistent Identifiers

PI

Principal Investigator

piCETL

Physics Innovations Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning

PICTURe

Primary Information & Communications Technology Useful References/reading/resources

PILS

Personalised, Integrated, Learning Support

PIMS

People Information Management System

PiPNet

Partnerships in Practice Network

PIPVIC

Piloting IP VIdeoConferencing

PISG

Performance Indicators Steering Group

PLANET

PLAnning on the NET

PLANT

People Learning and New Technology

PLR

Post Launch Review

PLUM

Programme on Learner Use of Media

PMC

Price Management Control

PMC

Programme Management Committee

PMG

Portfolio Management Group

PMI

Prime Minister\'s Initiative for international education

PMMI

Product Marketing and Market Intelligence

PMT

Position Management Team

PO

Planning Office

PO

Purchase Order

pOCAS

Preliminary Overall Continuous Assessment Score

POL

Personalised Open Learning

POLLO

Principles for Open Learning of Languages On-line (an IET project)

POSY

Procurement Online System

POTT

Profile of Tutor Marked Assignment Turnaround

PPARC

Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council

PPC

Psychology Programme Committee

PPDO

Projects, Portfolios and Dissertations Office

PPM

OU’s project management tool

PPPB

Presentation Patterns Project Bulletin

PPR

Periodic Programme Review

PPS

Practical and Professional Skills

PPU

Partnership Production Unit

PQA

Post-qualifications admissions

PQR

Periodic Quality Review

PRACTIS

PRimary care nurses Access to Communications Technology and Informatics Skills Project

PREST

Programme for Research in Engineering, Science and Technology

PRESTO

Pretty Rapid Electronic Surveys To Order

PRG

Post Review Group

PRG

Peer Review Group

PRM

Prevent Review Meeting

PRNP

Pre-registration Nursing Programme

PRO

Planning and Resource Officers

PRO

Public Record Office

ProMISES

Project for the Management of Integrated Scaleable Electronic Services

PROMPT

Presentation , Relavance , Objectivity , Method , Provenance , Timelessness

PROs

Planning and Resource Officers

PRPMS

Programme Resource Planning and Management System

PS

Practice Skills

PSA

Political Studies Association

PSBP

People Services Business Partner

PSDM

Product & Service Development Manager

PSG

Psychology in Science Group

PSO

Project Support Office

PSRB

Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Bodies

PSRI

Planetary Science Research Institute

PSS

Psychology in Social Science Group

PSSRI

Planetary Space Sciences Research Institute

PT

Presentation Transfer

PT

Practice Tutor

PTC

Postgraduate Programmes in Technology and Computing

PTES

Annual survey of Post Graduate Taught Students

PTFG

Part Time Fee Grant

PTP

Professional Training Programme

PTP

Promise to Pay

PVC

Pro Vice-Chancellor

PVC C&A

Pro Vice-Chancellor, Curriculum and Awards

PVC LTQ

Pro Vice-Chancellor, Learning,Teaching & Quality

PVC SEA

Pro-Vice Chancellor, Strategy & External Affairs

PVC(TD)

Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Technology Development)

PVCSG

Pro-Vice-Chancellor Support Group