Wednesday 6th February 2013 - Staff induction

I have written before on my views on student induction.  Too often what new students get in their first week or two are talks on how to find books in the library, how to search on-line databases, how to avoid plagiarism, how to operate safely in laboratory settings, and so on.  In other words, they get the operational detail for their time here.  What they often don't get is inspiration. They don't get a big picture view of what their subject is about, of the intellectual challenges within it, of the latest applications of subject knowledge outside the university world.  I would like students, as part of their induction, to be excited by what they will be doing, and to see something of the wider context in which their own studies and intellectual development will take place.

A parallel set of issues potentially affect new staff.  There is the round of visits to Human Resources, Corporate Information and Computer Services, the Library; there is attendance on the fire safety course; there is registration for the Certificate in Learning and Teaching and the programme encouraging reflection that should lead to new colleagues having the confidence to teach in varied settings and to develop their own curricula in the future.  Certainly the Vice-Chancellor holds welcome sessions for all new staff, focusing on the ethos and valeus of the Unviersity as a whole.  But until now I doubt that many new colleagues have really got the feel of the overall context of teaching within the University.

Today we have tried to change that.  Around 60 recently-appointed staff came together for a workshop day at which we discussed the University's approach to teaching, the strategic priorities we have and the distinctiveness we are trying to offer.  There were separate sessions for each Faculty on their approaches to student development.  Apart from a general introduction and question and answer session on the Unviersity's overall learning and teaching strategy, there were also separate sessions on topics such as internationalisation, employability, and widening participation. These all involve key aspects of what the University is seeking to achieve, but discussion of such strategies is normally confined to departmental and faculty teaching committees and to Senate - fora in which newly-appointed staff are unlikely to be present.

So it will be interesting to see the evaluations from the end of the day.  Will those who attended now feel that they have a handle on the big picture contexts for what we do (particularly the national and competitive environments)?  Will they have some appreciation of the route the university is trying to pursue?  Will they feel that they now have an understanding of key areas that will enable them quickly to see how their own teaching practice can contribute to wider goals - for example in outreach and diversity, or in internationalisation?  Perhaps it's going too far - but will they feel a little bit more inspiration about the contribution they can make to the teaching mission of the university?