David Gosling

Educational development units in the UK - what are they doing five years on?

How much has educational development changed in five years? What is its standing in UK higher education? This paper provides an overview of the current state of educational development in the UK and attempts to identify the changes that have occurred over the last five years. It reports on the responses of 53 heads of educational development units to a questionnaire which was based on a similar survey undertaken in 1995 and reported in this journal. The paper considers some of the major contextual factors which have influenced educational development over this five-year period, and provides an encouraging assessment of the growth in the number of units or departments being established with an educational development role. There is evidence of a steady growth in interest in learning and teaching in higher education in the UK, which has enabled educational development practitioners to achieve a new level of maturity and confidence. It is argued that educational development is fast becoming both an established field of study and a recognized professional role in most institutions of higher education in the UK.

Why history? Why now? Multiple accounts of the emergence of academic development

More than 40 years after its beginnings, academic development stands uncertainly on the threshold of becoming a profession or discipline in its own right. While it remains marginal to the dominant stories of the university, it has become central to the institutions contemporary business. This Research Note describes an enquiry that uses a multiple histories approach to explore the emergence of academic development in three national sites. Our intention is to provoke a more critical engagement with academic developments current forms and future possibilities.

What do UK educational development units do

Abstract There has been a significant increase in the number of educational development units (EDUs) created since 1992 in HEIs in the UK. This paper provides a survey of information on the roles and functions of 23 universities and colleges that have EDUs (or similar departments) and discusses their impact on developing institutional policies to support staff and students in improving teaching, learning and assessment practices.

Lost Opportunity: What a Credit Framework Would Have Added to the National Qualification Frameworks

This paper outlines the recent work of the Southern England Consortium, SEEC, and the principles to which it is committed. It is argued that the failure of the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) to grasp the nettle of credit in the recently published National Qualification Framework (NQF) is a blow, although not a fatal one, to the achievement of the objectives which SEEC is attempting to achieve on behalf of its member institutions. In particular, the opportunity to improve access, increase flexibility and support lifelong learning through the use of credit in the NQF has been lost. The value of the concept of level in a credit framework is defended and contrasted with the use of ‘qualification level’ in the NQF.

Unravelling the story of a milestone text, Tales from the Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education

NOD MILLER University of East London, UK PAUL ARMSTRONG University of Leeds, UK RONALD M. CERVERO University of Georgia, USA RICHARD EDWARDS University of Stirling, Scotland DAVID GOSLING University of East London, UK ELISABETH R. HAYES University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA JUANITA JOHNSON-BAILEY University of Georgia, USA LINDEN WEST Christ Church University College/University of East London, UK ARTHUR L. WILSON Cornell University, USA MIRIAM ZUKAS University of Leeds, UK