Recommendations: 13, 14, 15

Recommendation 13: We recommend that institutions of higher education begin immediately to develop or seek access to programmes for teacher training of their staff, if they do not have them, and that all institutions seek national accreditation of such programmes from the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education.

Recommendation 14: We recommend that the representative bodies, in consultation with the Funding Bodies, should immediately establish a professional Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. The functions of the Institute would be to accredit programmes of training for higher education teachers; to commission research and development in learning and teaching practices; and to stimulate innovation.

Recommendation 15: We recommend that the Institute should: develop, over the medium term, a system of kitemarking to identify good computer-based learning materials; co-ordinate the national development, over the medium and long term, of computer-based learning materials, and manage initiatives to develop such materials; facilitate discussion between all relevant interest groups on promoting the development of computer-based materials to provide common units or modules, particularly for the early undergraduate years.

3.2 The Government sees a need to ensure high standards and build on the professional status of teachers in higher education and agrees that the key to achieving this will be a suitably constituted new Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, which on current plans will be established by the HE sector in September 1998 (Recommendation 14). As the Dearing Committee proposed, the Institute should accredit programmes of training for higher education teachers, commission research and development into effective learning and teaching practice at all levels, and stimulate innovation. The Institute should work in partnership on matters of common interest with other bodies including the Teacher Training Agency, the General Teaching Council and the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. 3.3 The Government agrees that all universities and colleges should develop or have access to programmes for teacher training for their staff, and that they should seek accreditation of such programmes from the Institute (Recommendation 13). The training of staff is addressed more fully in Chapter 8, paras 8.1-8.3 below. The Government welcomes the work being done by the representative and other bodies in higher education to set up the Institute and agrees that the Institute should have a role in kitemarking and developing good computer-based learning and teaching materials for higher education (Recommendation 15). 3.4 One important way of improving the quality of teaching is to make available more widely the teaching of outstanding teachers. While most teaching in higher education will continue to be done by local teachers, students should also have the chance of hearing outstanding lecturers from elsewhere eg on film, video or via broadcasting. Of course, there can be no question of simply replacing live teachers by packaged ones, although in some cases quality can be enhanced by making available the lectures of outstanding teachers supported by classes given by local teachers. Nor can there be any central imposition of teaching material. All that can be done centrally is to promote the availability of good material from which each university or college can choose. With this in mind, the Government intends to invite the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, when established, to review this issue and consider organising a national scheme. The Committee’s recommendations on Communications and Information Technology are addressed in Chapter 7.

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