Extending the HE curriculum through partnership

Abstract

The basis of the session will be our involvement in a groundbreaking area of work for the University of Brighton, which involves moving a new group of colleagues from a ‘training’ culture to HE. Few of them come from an HE background or have prior experience of HE. Using evaluative data from this case study we shall explore with participants the staff development challenges associated with partnership programmes. We shall look at the needs of the new staff, their experiences of making the transition from a training culture, their responses to entering an HE environment and their desire to integrate and draw full benefit from it. For us as developers it is a matter of developing a whole team rather than individuals joining an experienced team. Their initial preparation for teaching has also been an issue, given the predominantly in-service model used in HE. The new area of provision is now in place and we shall bring a paper we have written which includes material from a focus-group enquiry.