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

Teaching excellence and careers
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given career-long attention it has the potential to open up an attractive, alternative
career route to that which has conventionally existed.
Differing requirements in different contexts
Traditionally, it has been suggested that the majority of pre-1992 universities paid lipservice
only to promoting a culture where learning and teaching are formally integrated
into career pathways. Indeed, a general lack of any means to demonstrate and be
rewarded for excellence in teaching has been a common complaint from staff in these
institutions for at least a decade. Examination of a range of promotion criteria from this
group of ‘research-intensive’ institutions suggests, however, that a potentially farreaching
shift in policy has begun and that where career progression on the basis of
teaching is now actively encouraged, detailed work has been undertaken to codify
requirements, to determine appropriate indicators and to identify elements to be
addressed and evidenced (see Case study 2).
Academics who work in contexts in which there is a pressure ‘to publish or perish’ and
who are required to respond to the increased use of metrics as a major determinant of
research performance may question, understandably, the wisdom of paying too much
attention to teaching. Fortunately, there is growing awareness not only of the validity of
promoting the teaching–research nexus as a means of ‘growing’ institutions’ own cadres
of potential research students (see Chapter 12) but also as a means of enriching a
distinctive form of teaching (Elton, 2005; Jenkins et al., 2007). In short, the argument has
moved on and is now centred on the balance to be struck between differing permutations
of individual teaching–research profiles in particular contexts.
What are the key elements?
As the first two case studies illustrate, in seeking promotion through a teaching ‘route’,
UK HEIs aspire to an extensive profile of significant activities at a level considerably
higher than the Associate and Fellow categories of the UK professional standards
(see Chapter 28). Institutional requirements for the award of Chairs line up better with
criteria established in 2007 for award of a Senior Fellowship of the HEA (see Further
reading). Common components focus on personal excellence in teaching and learning,
leadership, a national and/or international reputation, successful securing of competitive
external funding and contributions to scholarship in the field. For many universities an
established record in supervising research students through to completion in an
appropriate time-scale is also essential. Despite the potentially contested nature of such
concepts (Skelton, 2007), weight is given to criteria by the use of ‘qualifiers’ such as
‘excellence’, ‘outstanding’, ‘distinguished’ and ‘respected’. Curriculum innovation or
a distinctive approach to pedagogy are additionally identified as defining features of
superior performance.