It's an anti-national thing

A national teaching certificate could soon be compulsory for lecturers, but controversy surrounds the issue. Alison Utley finds academics sceptical

Most academics reject the idea of a national teaching certificate for higher education, according to a large-scale survey out next month.

Insiders expect stricter formal training for academics to be strongly recommended by the Dearing enquiry.

But the survey, conducted for the Universities and Colleges Staff Development Agency in Sheffield, reveals that a significant proportion of academics remains sceptical about the need for a nationally accredited teaching qualification for lecturers.

The survey report, supported by the Committee of Scottish Higher Education Principals and the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, recommends accredited career development as a more credible alternative. But the issue remains controversial and the survey uncovers deep divisions, particularly between respondents in older and newer universities.

In the new sector, for instance, academics tended to be more welcoming to the idea of a national teaching certificate, while the majority view in the older institutions clearly asserts that such a qualification is neither desirable nor necessary.

There was much support for raising the profile of the teaching role of academics in the survey, which was conducted in 21 universities and colleges in Scotland, but less agreement on how this should come about.

Respondents in newer institutions tended to give teaching and research equal status while those in the older sector regarded research as more important than teaching.

All agreed however that the first priority in raising the status of teaching was to link success in teaching to promotion criteria and to recognition and rewards.

"Academic staff are only too aware of the importance of quality time in conducting research and they wish to be able to afford the same quality time for teaching,'' the report says.

"They do not wish to be burdened with an accreditation framework which may restrict their ability to arrange quality time for both."

If accreditation of teaching was to come about, respondents felt strongly that new staff should not be singled out.

They felt accreditation ought to be aimed at late or mid-career academics who were thought to require more skills updating.

Many of the 400 respondents spoke very highly of their less-experienced colleagues who were seen as more open minded, innovative and flexible in their teaching.

The report acknowledges a number of external pressures which are forcing universities to review their approach to teaching.

These include the client-focused ethos; quality assurance procedures; staff appraisal schemes and the demand for more employable graduates.

The survey also found that academics were more in favour of a continuing professional development programme akin to those devised for similar professional groups such as medicine and librarianship.

The UCoSDA report is available from July, tel 0114 222 1335.