May 2012

Engaging and working with the Higher Education

Academy de

Dr Simon Steiner – Discipline Lead (Engineering)

simon.steiner@heacademy.ac.uk

• The changing higher education environment

• A re-structured Higher Education Academy• The HEA

• Academic Practice Development

• STEM and the Engineering Discipline

• Working with the Engineering Discipline in engineering, technology and materials• Achievements during the transition period

• Funding initiatives and opportunities across the HEA

• Your future engagement - with the HEA and the Engineering Discipline

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An overview

• A new era in higher education, with a rapidly and increasingly changing landscape:

• Student fees• Learning technologies• Increased competition• Employers and employability• Reduced teaching budgets• Growing student numbers

• Changes in student expectations, and increased attention on the quality and status of teaching

• The Academy’s focus remains on the student learning experience, and on work to enhance the quality of that experience 3

The higher education environment

• All activity now based from York, with offices in Edinburgh and Cardiff

• Remains owned by the HE community, through UUK and GuildHE, and funded by the 4 funding HE councils across the UK, with subscriptions from HEIs, and with external grants

• Working in partnership with institutions and sector bodies, to shape learning and teaching in UK higher education through the disciplines, to deliver both thematic and discipline-specific engagement 4

A re-structured Academy

The delivery of services is through activities under three headings:

• Academic practice development

• National workshops/seminars• Support to staff - PGTA/new-to-teaching staff

workshops• Teaching development grants

• Teacher excellence

• Accreditation; UKPSF; Recognition/NTFS

• Institutional strategy and change

• Consultancy; Summits; Partnership development5

The HEA – a new structure

• Academic Practice Development comprises four clusters:

• STEM, Health Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities

• STEM comprises:

• Physical Sciences; Maths, Stats. & OR; Computer Science; Engineering (inc. Materials); BioSciences; Geography; Psychology; Built Environment

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Academic Practice Development

• Transition-funded work (August ’11 to May ’12):

• Centre for Engineering and Design Education (CEDE) at Loughborough;

• UK Centre for Materials Education (UKCME) at Liverpool

• On-going support to communities of practice:

• via E-Bulletins, website updates (news, events), SIGs, enquiries;

• New Lecturers’ and PGTA Workshops; • Engineering Education journal; external projects’

dissemination (HE-STEM, OER, GDEE); • EE2012 conference – 18-20th Sept , at Coventry, and

sponsored by HEA7

Transition activities - engineering

• New areas of work:

[Discipline Leads, working with ADOs and appointed Academic Associates]

• Thematic and Discipline funded Calls for Teaching Development Grants and the hosting of events (seminars/workshops), and award of Travel Grants

• New to Teaching event(s) and PGTA workshop(s) across STEM

• Annual HEA STEM Conference: held 12/13th April 2012 at Imperial

• Dept Change Programme (from NSS), with 10-12 HEI departments/faculties.

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The engineering discipline - 1

• An annual Cluster Summit. This was held at Cardiff, 1-2 Feb., ’12, on Feedback – report pending

• Engagement with professional bodies and organisations (on committees, provision of workshops – accrediting PBs, RAEng, EPC, EC, EngNet/SSCs)

• Engagement with international groups (CDIO, AAEE, ASEE/NAE, SEFI/IGIP)

• Formation/support of discipline Special Interest Groups (SIGs) – Global Dimensions; Future of Engineering Education 9

The engineering discipline - 2

• Support to initiatives with Scotland, Wales, N. Ireland (Employability; Resources, Curriculum, SSCs, Strategic Subjects), Academy Change Programmes and Initiatives

• Promotion of Academy initiatives and funded programmes – UKPSF, HEAR, Student-led Awards, Teaching Development Grants (TDGs), the International Scholarship Scheme, the Doctoral (PhD) Programme

• Commissioning of new work (studies, reports, resources...)

• New areas of working (support, advice) - please let us know!

simon.steiner@heacademy.ac.uk

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Future engagement with the HEA