Teaching in Higher Education Developing University ...

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Developing University Teachers: an account of a scheme designed for postgraduate researchers on a lecturing career path a

Roy Fisher & Bertrand Taithe

b

a

School of Education and Professional Development , University of Huddersfield , Holly Bank Road, Huddersfield HD3 3BP b

Division of History, University of Huddersfield , Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH, UK Published online: 10 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: Roy Fisher & Bertrand Taithe (1998) Developing University Teachers: an account of a scheme designed for postgraduate researchers on a lecturing career path, Teaching in Higher Education, 3:1, 37-50, DOI: 10.1080/1356215980030103 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1356215980030103

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Teaching in Higher Education, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1998

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Developing University Teachers: an account of a scheme designed for postgraduate researchers on a lecturing career path ROY FISHER & BERTRAND TAITHE* School of Education and Professional Development, University of Huddersfield, Holly Bank Road, Huddersfield HD3 3BP and *Division of History, University of Huddersfield, Queensgate, Huddersfield HD1 3DH, UK

There is a growing recognition within higher education institutions of the importance of teaching as a core activity for trainee academics. This paper outlines and reports on a scheme which has been established to address the needs of postgraduate researchers who wish to build a career as university teachers. The scheme, now under review at the close of its first year of operation, is one which provides a potential model for other institutions. The paper includes extracts from a frank discussion involving participants in the scheme and highlights some of the practical difficulties which have occurred, in addition to the many benefits which are both expected in the future as well as some which are currently accruing. ABSTRACT

In September 1996, the School of Education and Division of History at the University of Huddersfield, a 'new' university in the North of England, which was the Huddersfield Polytechnic until 1993, launched a collaborative scheme which aimed to provide postgraduate research students with opportunities to conduct research within their chosen historical field, to gain paid experience in teaching and to concurrently pursue a Postgraduate Certificate in Education focusing on the post-compulsory sector (which, in the United Kingdom, comprises those students aged 16 years and above). The scheme aimed to attract people who wanted to research and who also had a strong personal commitment to teaching. This paper aims to briefly outline the structure of the scheme and, through the use of extracts from a 'round-table' discussion involving the four postgraduates who constitute the first cohort, together with two of the tutors responsible for its operation, to report on some aspects of the experience to-date. It is intended that the reader will gain a relatively unmediated appreciation of aspects of the scheme, including the rationale behind it, a candid exposure to some of the inevitable problems which have arisen in practice, a sense of the many benefits which have begun to accrue already, and of the potential advantages which the scheme might reasonably be expected to offer to both individual participants and to the institution. 1356-2157/98/010037-14 © 1998 Carfax Publishing Ltd

38 R. Fisher & B. Taithe


Developing Teachers in Higher Education The Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom (CVCP) (1996) has highlighted the need to defend and promote the quality of teaching in British higher education and has pointed to a need for '. . . . wider accreditation and professional development of university teachers' (p. 9). That many universities are now recognising this is evident in the increasing provision targeted at giving new lecturers at least basic training in teaching techniques, and a number of institutions are encouraging staff to undertake award bearing courses such as postgraduate certificates in education and masters degrees (Irwin, 1995). Others have chosen to utilise the accreditation service which is offered by the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) which, since 1993, has been active in recognising staff training courses within the sector (Baume, 1997). Evidence submitted to Sir Ron Dearing's National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (NCIHE) (commonly referred to as the 'Dearing Committee') suggested that there would be widespread support for a national accreditation system which might go beyond some form of teaching certificate, conferring recognition such as that associated with the medical and legal professions (Utley, 1997a). When the Dearing Committee's long anticipated Higher Education in the Learning Society Report (NCIHE, 1997) finally appeared in July 1997 its recommendation that an Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education should be established (recommendation 14, pp. 125 and 128) came as little more than confirmation of widespread speculation which had appeared throughout the educational press as features and correspondence on the status and position of teaching in higher education were published with unprecedented frequency (examples include Baume, 1997; Fender, 1997; Gibbs et al., 1997; Jenkins, 1997; King, 1997; Reuter, 1997; Utley, 1997b,c). Rowland & Barton (1994) describe a part-time Master of Education course which was introduced within the University of Sheffield with the aim of developing a critical perspective on pedagogic issues through the creation of a group of academics who would both reflect on their experiences and research their teaching—the programme specifically sought to move beyond the notion that the practice of teaching could be addressed adequately through ' . . . the mere application of technique' (p. 374). The pathway described in this paper shares some of the aspirations of the Sheffield initiative though a major difference is that it is aimed specifically at postgraduate research students rather than tenured academics. Caston et al. (1978) describe a programme which, more than 20 years ago, ambitiously sought to provide postgraduate researchers at Wolfson College, Oxford with both teaching skills and the opportunity to engage in the '. . . . exploration of educational problems' (p. 74). Consisting of 14 evening sessions, held between January and May in 1976, the experience left the organisers disappointed at the disinclination of the participants to think critically about the processes of education, but more convinced than ever of the need for more courses aimed at preparing postgraduates for a career in university teaching. The Huddersfield scheme recognises that need as one which, within the context of the 'New HE' (Scott, 1995; Barnett, 1997), takes on even greater significance.

Developing University Teachers 39


A Contextualisation and Outline of the Huddersfield Pathway The Division of History at Huddersfield, as is common practice through most of British Higher Education, has long provided research students with the opportunity to undertake some teaching of undergraduates. The benefits of such arrangements, in terms of personal development for the researcher and additional labour for the institution, are fairly obvious; the problems which may or may not arise are less so. Many postgraduates show an immediate aptitude for teaching and gain a highly favourable reaction from groups who are enlivened by their enthusiasm and freshness of approach and, as Moust & Schmidt (1994) have shown, the assumption that student tutors might have a negative effect on student achievement is by no means proven. In recent years, however, inexperienced and inadequately supported research students have, in many British universities, been unleashed on undergraduates to the detriment of all parties concerned (Jenkins & Gibbs, 1995; O'Connor, 1997). NCIHE (1997) referred to 'concerns', but suggested that the use of postgraduates as teachers '. . . . can be a desirable development if managed in a systematic way with quality control and support mechanisms . . . ' (p. 222). There is, however, a danger that increased financial and work pressures may tempt Heads of Departments to take risks in this area, a possibility which has been amusingly lampooned in the following extract from Laurie Taylor's (1994) weekly satirical column for The Times Higher Education Supplement:

Ah, there you are, Ms Thompson? Do sit down. How are the old MA studies coming along? Not too badly [...] Excellent. Ms Thompson, let me come straight to the point. As you know we attach a great deal of importance in this department to developing the pedagogic abilities of our postgraduates and we've decided that you would be just the person to take over five or six weekly seminars on our Introductory Cultural Studies course. Thank you, Professor Lapping. Obviously we have to take your relative inexperience into account. So initially we'd be paying the probationary honorarium of £5.25 per hour which would include such other minor tasks as overall assessment duties and informal supervision of students with learning or emotional difficulties.

It is precisely the approach implied by the above which we were keen to avoid. Simply stated the scheme which we have adopted involves the research student in registering to read part-time for, initially, a Master of Philosophy research degree with the prospect of transferring the registration to a Doctorate in due course. During the first 2 years of the registration the student would normally undertake 6 hours teaching or teaching-related activities per week, for 24 weeks in each aca-


40 R. Fisher & B. Taithe demic year, paid at the prevailing nationally agreed part-time hourly rate (currently £23.30). The teaching is supported by structured 'learning packages' which have been designed by experienced lecturers, as well as by 'mentored guidance' from both within the Division of History and the School of Education. During these first 2 years the student is concurrently registered as a part-time student on an in-service Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) pathway at the University's School of Education. After the first 2 years those students continuing with their research may be offered a studentship or they may choose to continue their studies part-time, whilst in full or part-time employment in either the FE or HE sector. The PGCE is a modular pathway which has been designed specifically for the needs of those working in post-compulsory education. The structure of the Pathway is based around the following eleven 'roles': A B C D E F G H I J K

Planner—of teaching and learning; Designer-—of teaching and learning using a range of media and methods; Assessor—of student learning using a range of techniques and instruments; Practitioner—displaying the skills of teaching ranging from instructor to facilitator; Curriculum developer—within existing programmes and courses; Subject specialist—displaying an up-to-date knowledge of the subject and its teaching; Facilitator—of other peoples learning using a repertoire of intra-and interpersonal skills; Organisation member—working effectively within the organisation, understanding both its context and how it operates; Enterpriser—responding proactively and effectively to change; Evaluator—of own effectiveness, students' learning experiences of the curriculum, and of the organisation; Professional—understanding and owning an integrated set of values and beliefs about own work in teaching.

Within the pathway it is necessary for the student to develop certain themes, one of which must be Equal Opportunities, the other three being negotiable (examples of these are Information Technology and European issues). To gain the award a student must complete 12 modules from a wide range of options, choosing two from within the Practitioner role, and one from each of the other roles. Each module consists of outcomes for which the student negotiates evidence to be produced and submitted in the form of a portfolio. The evidence that outcomes have been achieved must, following the influential work of Schon (1983, 1987), be supported by systematic reflection and evaluation. This PGCE has now been running in broadly its present form since 1993 and is one which, based on the principles of adult learning and strongly influenced by the notion of an 'adult learning' model ('Andragogy') (Knowles, 1990), offers a highly student centred flexible learning programme which can support a wide range of individual learning requirements (for a critical overview of the development of the pathway see



Farrington, 1996). A number of higher education lecturers have now received the award, but this is the first time that it has been utilised to support the very particular learning needs of postgraduate researchers. The rest of this paper will focus on some key issues using extracts from a 'round-table' discussion, held at the University of Huddersfield School of Education on Wednesday 11 December 1996, [1] in an attempt to afford some insight into why and how the pathway outlined above might be effectively deployed in such a context. The discussion was based on a pre-agreed agenda/structure which had been formed from suggestions made by the participants. In preparing for the event an ethos of 'openess'/informality was emphasised in order that the students would feel able to express their feelings freely. The session, which was tape recorded, was 'open ended' and lasted just a little under 3 hours. The extracts appearing below, which have been subject to limited grammatical/syntactical editing, have been selected on the basis of their potential to illuminate either the scheme or some aspect of the students' experience of it.

The Purpose of the Scheme RF: There is now a clear trend towards looking more critically at teaching as an activity in HE. There has long been a concern to attempt to measure the quality of research, but it is now generally recognised that teaching is a crucially important activity, and one which deserves the kind of privilege and status that research is normally accorded, so increasingly staff in HE are looking to be trained in teaching (which is a statutory requirement for their colleagues in state schools) and various systems are beginning to be developed to allow that training to take place. For many years research students in universities have been expected to do some teaching but this has often been without the benefit of formal guidance and training, and certainly without recognised certification—our scheme is meant to change that. We are not aware of anything elsewhere which operates in precisely the same way. BT: This scheme should enable the students to come well-informed to their first employment in higher education. It seeks to address the paradox that whilst teaching experience and skills are now required there is still no well-established model for training in HE. At interviews, applicants are often being asked demanding questions on quality in teaching, as well as on their ability to deliver research publications. There has been a shift which has not yet taken any particular form. This scheme provides a structure and that's a novelty. Another very strong argument in its favour, to put it bluntly, is that it is 'cost efficient' and that it may help solve the problems many institutions have in investing in the traditionally very expensive postgraduate studentships which, in the United Kingdom, have often proved to have low completion rates and low 'returns on expenditure'. This scheme offers a qualification, it is cost-efficient and it also has the potential to bring innovations in teaching.

42 R. Fisher & B. Taithe


TR: Isn't it the case that the combination where we can do research and teach is only for a short period of time? Once we have come to the end of our PGCE and MPhil or PhD, there isn't necessarily going to be an opening. Our position surely will be replaced by whoever comes along next and its only a short-term measure. BT: The Higher Education labour market in the United Kingdom may appear bleak for several reasons—some of them are structural, some of them are specific to the cycles of regulatory exercises in the United Kingdom higher education market. In 1996 the research exercise outcome combined with budgetary cuts made the situation difficult and few institutions could hire permanent staff. Over a longer period there is a 'demographic time-bomb' which is well identified and which allows for some hope. A positive outcome of this scheme is the fact that your formative experience will be rich in terms of both research and teaching, and that you will gain qualifications in each of those areas. RE: Coming back to this thing about our cost efficiency. To what extent are we going to be seen as different from others because we are not paid the normal bursary? BT: One of the reasons why you are cost-efficient is due to the fact that two combined part-time awards avoid the conventional postgraduate fees which are often charged to departments in the United Kingdom. At this stage of the discussion students requested more information on the popularity of the scheme when it was advertised. The scheme was advertised once in The Guardian and in the Times Higher Education Supplement in March 1996. The advertisement attracted over 80 enquiries and 46 applications, which compared very favourably with a previous response regarding a full doctoral studentship. It appears that this scheme was attractive to prospective postgraduates because it had a very practical aspect offering the potential of employment prospects in the post-compulsory sector at both FE and HE level. This combination follows the broad lines of recent restructuration trends of university provision in the United Kingdom which have witnessed an increasing number of franchises of university degrees in FE colleges, as well as short-term and temporary academic employment contracts. It is envisaged that this new environment will enable career pathways which can cross the boundaries of further education and higher education much more easily than was customary even in the recent past. Academic careers which lasted 40 years in the one institution are unlikely to be the norm for this generation of postgraduates. While these changes entail an element of insecurity which we never tried to hide from the students themselves, they also enable them to consider their prospective career in higher education as something far more flexible and less routine prone than for their predecessors. Our common belief in starting this scheme was precisely that the post-16 sector is bound to continue to become more integrated and that the boundaries will inevitably blur, these trends which have now been evident for some time, were subsequently formally identified by Dearing (NCIHE, 1997). In this light we believe that students following what is undoubtedly a demanding and


highly pressured programme of training will have more opportunities than their peers in less structured postgraduate environments. Some Aspects of the Postgraduate Student Teacher Experience


RF: We have talked about general factors which apply to some extent across the post-16 (and especially HE) sector, but what about the particulars of your experience of the MPhil/PGCE scheme? Obviously, there are three major strands to this in that you are trying to do research, you have teaching responsibilities, and then there are the demands of undertaking the PGCE. It is a lot for you to have to manage. What are your thoughts on that? RE: At the moment our time is quite precious and part of the reason for that is that we are doing marking for the first time. It takes some getting used to and that encroaches on our time a lot. JC: It seems that the teaching is the major thing and everything else has been put on the 'back burner' really, that seems to take an awful lot of time. Also, having to learn a subject which is new is very time consuming. TR: The PGCE has emphasised the importance of preparing properly for your teaching, obviously you need to be 'on the ball', but it has been a good challenge. I've enjoyed the teaching, my research is only just starting to get going, and I'm concerned that my research may be 'gathering moss'. RE: Perhaps the only time we are really going to have for research is going to be during the vacations. BT: Do you find that the teaching actually feeds into your research? Do you have to read and get involved in debates that relate to your research? Do you find that by teaching others you educate yourselves in related topics? JC: I've found that you have to make a specific effort to find things that you are particularly interested in. BT: Would you have preferred to teach from a less structured package? JC: Yes and no. Its a 'two-edged sword' really. TR: I guess that because this was our introduction to teaching we wanted a structured package, but there have been a lot of areas where I have thought that I would have liked to have done more, or to have approached it differently. Next time I would ideally like to talk more with the staff responsible and maybe the exam paper could incorporate some of my ideas as well. BT: You are very welcome to bring your ideas and your questions. TR: Actually, it was offered, its just that at the time it was about the third week in and it was a bit early for me to feel ready.

44 R. Fisher & B. Taithe JC: Its been hard, the first semester is always hard I suppose and I anticipate that the next semester will be a bit easier.


RE: I've been surprised how much administration there is to do. There is a lot of 'form filling'—obviously it has got to be done, its just that we are surprised at how much there is. The next part of the discussion revolved around the concept of teaching packs which were originally designed to be student centred and perhaps formulaic, presenting questions of a theoretical nature about a set of primary sources chosen to reflect the diversity of issues dealt with in each course. The four basic taught components of the first year in history at Huddersfield University are 'keywords', a course based on the thinking of Raymond Williams (Williams, 1983), which explores the history of ideas by looking at the evolution of key terms in history. 'Last Centuries of the Middle Ages' which serves as an introduction to medieval history with which most students are unfamiliar. A survey course on 'Modern Britain' introduces students to contemporary political and economic history. The last course being 'Modern Europe and the World', which covers the political history of key world powers in the Twentieth Century. Beyond these taught courses students take skill modules and follow weekly small group (c. 4:1) tutorials on historical sources with their personal tutors who are all full-time members of staff. In the second year of the scheme the MPhil/PGCE students will be allowed more freedom with the teaching material. The postgraduates' response to the packs has on the whole been positive in that they provided 'basic guide-lines', whilst reservations had been expressed with regard to the '. . . . amount of information to digest . . .'. From the five formal teaching monitoring/observation visits per academic year which each of the students receives, mentors from the Division of History and the School of Education have been conscious of the rigidity of the teaching packs. There was a perception that the students were unsure about the extent to which they had licence in the use of the packages and the extent to which they were prescriptive. Often, in the sessions mentors observed, there has been a sense of urgency in terms of covering the ground, and on occasion interesting points have emerged which have not been properly developed. This use of the packs ignored the fact that they were devised to act as 'safety nets'. From the Division of History's point of view the main concern was to avoid some poor teaching experiences previous undergraduates went through at the hands of inexperienced teachers. The MPhil/PGCE students understood our concern and reacted positively to this issue: TR: I think though that one of the positives of combining the teaching and the PGCE is that when we meet as PGCE group the things which we cover really come together. I'm looking forward to the 'Curriculum Developer' module because that will enable us to look at how we can best make our inputs. BT: Part of the rationale for this scheme was the expectation that you would bring new things to our work and would refresh our teaching. [ . . . . ]



RF: There are two PGCE modules in particular, 'Curriculum Developer' this year and 'Enterpriser' in the second year, which will give you a lot of freedom to be creative in the development of learning materials and hopefully this will be a bonus for each of you as individuals, for all of you as a group, and for the colleagues and students you are working with. Ideally, you could develop curriculum materials which relate to your research area and, whilst its unlikely that there will be a perfect 'match', hopefully you will be able to create a high level of synergy between your research and the demands of the PGCE, to complement the more obvious relationship which exists between your teaching and the PGCE. RE: Have you had any feedback from the students? BT: I have had some very positive feedback. On the whole the students are very happy. One thing we do know is that everybody is given fair treatment whereas in the past there were wide variations in the performance of research students undertaking some teaching. Another benefit is that your input has made possible to reduce the size of the seminar groups to 8 to 10 students and this is much better than the situation last year where groups of 17 or 18 made the logic of a seminar difficult to sustain. We have also used the scheme to free more of the full-time lecturers' time to teach our personal tutees in groups of four or five. Combining smaller groups and very small tutorial groups has increased the contacts between first year undergraduates and staff. I think also that another very positive factor has been a sharp decline in student absenteeism.

The Status of Postgraduates Who Teach RF: [. . . ] One of the things which I am sure you will recall from your schooldays is that student teachers have a different 'status' to that accorded to the regular teachers, this is something which applies both in the classroom and the staffroom, and for that matter in the corridor. I don't think that HE is by any means immune from such perceptions and I wondered to what extent you might have been conscious of this? We can start with the students perhaps—do you feel that they hold a view of you which is different to that which they might have of a full-time member of staff? TR: I think from my experience, though I recognise it is difficult to generalise, they may see us as more 'approachable'. RF: Was your position in some way 'announced' or is it something which they have gleaned? BT: At the first lecture we mentioned the fact that research students would be involved in teaching and we informed the undergraduates of the quality assurance systems which would be used, such as double-marking and tutorial mentoring. Its fair to say that a number of staff were worried as well. They were concerned that

46 R. Fisher & B. Taithe they would be losing contact with students and that they might be dragged into more administrative work. RE: I introduced myself at the beginning of every seminar and I do remember that in one group someone 'pulled a face'. . . my impression was that they were thinking 'I've just got a research student and not a 'proper lecturer'.


TR: I think one of the problems is communication. Students naturally have asked me questions about the course and often I couldn't give them an answer. If someone had said 'this is what you need to know, this is where you will find these forms' it would have been helpful. There were a lot of grey areas and I am still learning things [. . . ] RF: Returning to the issue of status, and looking at it from the perspective not of students but of full-time staff [. . . ] You are members of the teaching staff, although 'part-time', you are paid money to teach—certainly that is the way that I see it and as such you should have the same status, provisionally, as a full-time member of staff. Clearly, there are issues of experience and other associated factors which complicate things. 'Titles' are another issue and there may be technicalities about what job titles can be conferred. BT: One of the difficulties we had was to create a name for this scheme and in the end we couldn't create a 'title' because to do so would have been to bring into being a new entity which would have had to be validated so we just stuck the two things together—'MPhil with PGCE'. RF: I think it would be good if you all attended all appropriate meetings within the Division. The PGCE programme is about more than teaching, it is about becoming an effective member of an educational organisation with all that is involved in that, and there are many aspects to being an effective educational practitioner besides teaching. To see the way in which committees operate, to see the different styles which individuals employ, to become familiar with the language and the operation of CATS would be immensely valuable, even if a little painful at times. So if you have the opportunity to attend a formal, or informal meeting, do it because the experience will be good for you. It will also help you to become more widely known and to become accepted as a member of the Team. It was clear from our discussion, from subsequent reflections made by the students and from some comments made by staff working with them, that the issue of status for postgraduates who teach is a difficult one which needs to be addressed in some direct way. In September 1997 SEDA (1997) launched an 'Associate Teacher Scheme', aimed specifically at part-time staff, including postgraduates, as a subset of their Teacher Accreditation Scheme. Dearing (NCIHE, 1997) recommended that new staff be required to achieve associate membership of the proposed Institute of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education in order to successfully complete their probationary year (p. 126). Our own scheme, within the local context, has a strong profile and could, notionally, be expected to confer a high status on



participants. In practice, however, there are some deep-seated cultural attitudes in higher education which can, on occasion, regardless of the realities of their experience, give postgraduate students who teach an accute sense of their hierachical location somewhere between their students and tenured academics. Notwithstanding this, the general experience of the postgraduates has been a positive one and they have been appreciative of the support which they have received. Their expressed concerns have related primarily to teaching issues, especially the conduct of seminars, time management, the demands of research and relationships with colleagues, and in this regard their anxieties have shown remarkable congruence with those identified by the 19 newly-appointed HE staff whose perceptions were reported on by Blackmore & Wilson (1995). The Teaching/Research Relationship BT: What is your view of research and teaching? Is there a conflict or is the relationship symbiotic? TR: It's difficult to say. Obviously teaching adds to your historical knowledge, but there hasn't been a great deal of over-lap so far. BT: However, do you actually feed your research into your teaching, because that is the other possibility? RE: I have done on one occasion, but I don't want to do it too much because it might introduce Michel Foucault to them at too early a stage. [laughter] RF: Oddly enough, Foucault links very nicely into a critical examination of models of teaching. We have been talking about links between your research and your teaching of history, but you shouldn't exclude the possibility of links betwen your historical research and your educational studies. JC: I've found things which are applicable to my research which I can also use in the PGCE. BT: What do you think will interest you most in higher or further education, will it be the teaching or the research? TR: At this stage, I think the teaching. RE: Yes, teaching is a new challenge and I think that we are all finding it interesting. We haven't done research before, but we have done similar academic work. One of the key concerns of the mentors of this scheme was to break the false dichotomy which separates teaching from research. We are of the view, perhaps rhetorically orthodox, but not always given practical expression, that research is enriched through teaching and that teaching enables the fruits of research to be communicated. One of the key reasons for the continued persistence of the debate surrounding the teaching/research relationship is the perceived attempt to create an

48 R. Fisher & B. Taithe 'Ivy League' of research universities, which probably exists already. We realise that to state and restate that research and teaching are indivisible, and that the latter 'feeds' the former, is to take up a negotiating position. It is, in the political climate, an unfortunately necessary assertion of the obvious. At this stage of their research students and mentors agreed that time management was undoubtedly the greatest challenge of all.


Some Practical Considerations Students found the issue of their status difficult to assert to the various administrative bodies with which they have to deal. They were provided with a shared 'staff room' and a number of computers which set them aside from other research students and provided them with better accommodation and equipment. Their teaching is regularly assessed by members of staff from the Division of History and by their mentor from the School of Education. The teaching assessment reports are circulated and information flows freely between the mentors who keep in touch very regularly. Peer observation being the practice of the Division of History the students are integrated in this teaching quality monitoring exercise and do not seem to resent this high level of attention. In reviewing the scheme the suggestion has been made that second- or third-year postgraduate researchers, who have had an opportunity to significantly progress the early stage of their research work, would perhaps experience fewer problems in terms of reconciling the many demands of the MPhil/PGCE programme. The general intention when the Division of History initiated this scheme was to enlarge the teaching team, to improve practice, to create something which was new and interesting and which will enable us, with our 'meagre resources', to further build our research community, and to strengthen and enliven the research culture of the Division. Another outcome of this scheme may be to herald a closer relationship between the School of Education and the rest of the University. The School of Education, originally an independent College of Education, was subsumed into the then Polytechnic in the early 1970s. Like many other Schools of Education it is on a site geographically removed from the 'main' campus and it has its own distinctive culture. A perception of Education faculties as 'semi-detached' or on the fringe of the academic world is not uncommon in British universities (Inglis, 1995), and this partially contributes to lost opportunities and an under-utilisation of staff potential across the whole of Higher Education.

Conclusions There is now an apparent consensus of opinion regarding the need for issues surrounding the quality of teaching in higher education to be addressed: what Rowland (1996) has referred to as the 'principle of equivalence' between teaching and research is generally accepted though, he suggests, the latter is more highly valued in practice. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has recently established a 'Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning'



with the aim of disseminating good practice between institutions, and the Council will launch a pedagogic research fund during the course of 1997 (Fender, 1997). The Dearing Report (NCIHE, 1997) has, through its recommendation for the establishment of an Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, also endorsed the importance of actively addressing pedagogic issues. The scheme described above is one which, whilst in its infancy, is attempting to develop young academics as researchers and teachers in a way which recognises the crisis in funding which is endemic in the higher education system. Those problems which have emerged during this early stage have related primarily to the natural anxieties of people who are entering a career within a profession which is in a phase of transition, to the associated issue of resources, ant to the usual stresses and sheer time consuming hard work which are a feature of the first year(s) of teaching. In general, the experience to-date has been a positive one for the University, those postgraduates participating in the scheme and for their students. Acknowledgement We wish to acknowledge the contribution which our students have made to this paper and to our thinking on the associated issues.

NOTES [1] Key to participants: SB = Sarah Bastow—research student in History/PGCE student; JC = Janet Conneely—research student in History/PGCE student; RE = Robert Ellis—research student in History/PGCE student; RF = Roy Fisher—Senior Lecturer in Education; TR = Tom Rowley—research student in History/PGCE student; BT=Bertrand Taithe—Senior Lecturer in History.

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