Improving Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

• What are the aims of higher education?
• What are the strategies necessary for institutional improvement?
• How might the student experience be improved?

The emergence of the discourse around learning and teaching is one of the more remarkable phenomena of the last decade in higher education. Increasingly, universities are being required to pay greater attention to improving teaching and enhancing student learning. This book will help universities and colleges achieve these goals through an approach to institutional change that is well founded on both research and practical experience.

By placing learning at the centre of organizational change, this book challenges many of the current assumptions about management of teaching, supporting students, the separation of research and teaching, the use of information technology and quality systems. It demonstrates how trust can be restored within higher education while advancing the need for change based on principles of equity and academic values for students and teachers alike.

Improving Teaching and Learning in Higher Education is key reading for anyone interested in the development of teaching and learning in higher education, as well as policy makers.

Vaneeta D’Andrea is Director of Academic Affairs and Operations at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London and Professor of Higher Education Development. She is a Carnegie Scholar and has recently focused her research on higher education policy relating to the scholarship of teaching and learning. Previously she was Director of Educational Development at City University and Co-Director of the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund National Co-ordination Team for the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

David Gosling is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Plymouth where he is undertaking research in higher education policy relating to teaching and learning. He also works as an independent higher education consultant and evaluator. Previously he was Head of Educational Development at the University of East London and Co-Director of the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund National Co-ordination Team for the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Vaneeta and David were Co-Directors of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund, National Co-ordination Team and have been Convenors of the UK Heads of Educational Development Group. They have jointly published on scholarship of teaching and learning, educational development, and quality enhancement. They are the joint directors of Critical Change Consultants for Higher Education and have undertaken consultancies in the UK, South Africa, Russia, United States, Hungary and Spain.