A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

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Teaching excellence
as a vehicle for
career progression
Stephanie Marshall and Gus Pennington
SCOPE AND RATIONALE OF CHAPTER
Accomplished university teachers have always been well regarded by their former
students and are frequently remembered with gratitude and affection in later life (Glasser,
1988; Steiner, 1997). Equally, recognition of an individual’s teaching prowess by their
peers and institutions has been somewhat muted and, until relatively recently, has been
given little or no formal attention in the determination of professional advancement and
reward. This situation is changing significantly in some countries, including the UK which
is the focus of this chapter. Here national policies, funding incentives, market forces,
institutional missions and the rapid growth of teaching-only posts (Court, 2007) place
a new emphasis and enhanced value on competent teaching in all its forms. In virtually
all UK universities and institutes, even top-flight researchers with some formal responsibilities
for students are expected to possess and demonstrate continuing expertise in
teaching, including the supervision of research students.
Where once the nature, volume and scope of individual professional development for
teaching was a private matter it is now clearly in the public domain and subject to various
forms of review and regulation. Appraisal of performance, quality assurance procedures,
institutional and subject-level audits and requirements for professional body membership
have exposed a once ‘secret garden’. Changes in the post-Dearing (NCIHE, 1997) higher
education landscape, such as confirmation of the role of the Quality Assurance Agency
(QAA), the establishment of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and Learning and
Teaching Committees within Higher Education Funding Councils have kept learning
and teaching matters to the fore and high on the national agenda. More recently, the
advent, enhanced public profile and external leverage of the National Student Survey
(NSS) has provided a fresh impetus for institutions to ensure they have structures and
policies in place to assure and enhance all forms of effective academic practice. The
intrinsic value of securing quality in this core element of every university’s mission has
been bolstered by a more demanding, fee-paying student population and the pragmatics
of increased competition for students both indigenous and from overseas. Establishment
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