Improve university teaching and learning through institutional strategies

Abstract

For two decades attempts in the UK to improve university teaching largely focussed on individual teachers. By the 1990’s it had become clear that no amount of innovation by individual teachers was capable of sufficient, or sufficiently rapid, change to respond to reduced resources, more and more diverse students, new technology and government agendas concerning the employability of students. Innovation in teaching was constrained by institutional infrastructures designed to support the status quo of 20 years before. Substantial government investment in project-led initiatives had made little impact. As a reaction to this failure, in 1997 a national ‘Learning and Teaching Strategies’ initiative was launched, backed by E165million. Existing best practice in bringing about wide scale institutional change in teaching and learning was identified and documented. Institutions were entitled to annual funds, in relation to their size, if they developed an institutional strategy to improve teaching. All 134 institutions, including the research elite, voluntarily took part. Three reviews of progress have since been undertaken and case studies of best practice shared nationally through publications and events. The development of institutional change mechanisms to improve teaching has been creative and dramatic. The paper will focus on five significant strands that have emerged as institutions have leant to implement learning and teaching strategies: • The training and professionalisation of new university teachers, and evidence of the effectiveness of this training • Investment in innovation in teaching and the development of mechanisms to increase the cost-effectiveness of such investment • Mechanisms to re-orient academics’ focus of attention by recognising and rewarding excellence in teaching • Attempts to operationalise the belief that students benefit when their teachers are active researchers • Attempts to be strategic about improving teaching within departments.