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

496 ❘
Enhancing personal practice
relative quality and depth of supporting evidence they provide should reflect the balance
of weightings declared in their application. This approach requires candidates to think
carefully about the basis of their application and to analyse their individual strengths
while providing the university with a flexible, consistent and transparent mechanism
(for promotion guidelines, see Monash University in References).
POSTSCRIPT
Contrary to some negative (and frequently uninformed) external opinions about the
capability of the UK higher education sector to manage change, many institutions have
demonstrated a willingness to overhaul traditional practices. A new emphasis on teaching
quality, the student experience and responsiveness to student opinion, coupled with
policy-led initiatives in the area of HR management and workforce restructuring, have
created a culture more inclined to innovate. Shifts in attitude and behaviour abound in
relation to the valuing of human capital, the motivational dimension of performance
management and the appropriateness of reward systems. The move towards the
establishment of the ‘Teaching Chair’ or ‘Professorial Teaching Fellow’ is part of a
dynamic which is opening up new promotional pathways for individuals at, or
approaching, mid-career. It also acknowledges the almost imperceptible growth of
‘teaching-only posts’ in the past decade, now amounting to a quarter of all academic
positions (Court, 2007).
The means deployed to test the quality of individuals seeking advancement via such
routes is becoming clearer and the criteria more refined. Providing criteria are applied
with rigour and integrity, and the flow of candidates is of a high calibre, there is no reason
why these initiatives should not succeed and become permanent features of the HE
environment. As Félix Fénéon reminds us, ‘there is no such thing as the avant-garde; only
people lagging behind’.
REFERENCES
Baume, D and Yorke, M (2002) ‘The reliability of assessment by portfolio on a course to
develop and accredit teachers in higher education’, Studies in Higher Education, 27 (1): 7–25.
Boyer, E L (1990) Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities for the Professoriate, Princeton, NJ: Carnegie
Foundation.
Brenton, S (2003) ‘Online portfolios at Queen Mary University of London’ (pp. 249–250), in
H Fry and S Ketteridge, ‘Teaching portfolios’ (pp. 242–252), in H Fry et al. (2nd edn),
A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, London: Kogan Page.
Court, S (2007) ‘Reshaping academic work and the academic workforce in the UK’, paper
presented at SRHE Conference, 11–13 December, Brighton.
Dreyfus, H L and Dreyfus, S E (1986) Mind over Machine, New York: Free Press .
Elton, L (2005) ‘Scholarship and the research and teaching nexus’, in R Barnett (ed.), Reshaping
the University: New Relationships Between Research, Scholarship and Teaching (pp. 108–118),
London: McGraw Hill/Open University Press.