UCC Response to HEA consultation document on new National Academy
National Academy for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning: Consultation
Document
University College Cork’s Response
Executive Summary
In responding to the HEA’s consultation document on the proposal to establish a new National
Academy for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, University College Cork (UCC) is drawing
from its own strategic plan and the key assumptions therein, as well as its experience as the
coordinating institution for the SIF-funded NAIRTL and development of its internal teaching and
learning agenda.
Given the current fiscal crisis, it is important that the new National Academy for the Enhancement
of Teaching and Learning provides value for money. The state investment in this initiative should
not be expended on buildings or infrastructure but should avail of existing structures and expertise
that have proven capacity to carry out the relevant functions. UCC believes that the National
Academy is best served by a ‘hub and spoke (distributed centres)’ model where the hub is closely
aligned with an academic institution and the spokes are similarly based around existing
complimentary centres of expertise and proven capacity. The work processes and operations,
however, of the National Academy should be largely virtual in nature.
Such a model has been demonstrated to work in Ireland through the national entity NAIRTL whose
mission is to work with 38 Irish higher education institutions to develop and implement policy and
practices aimed at enhancing the student learning experience at both undergraduate and graduate
level. This model has gained the trust of these higher education institutions, working in harmony
with their individual teaching and learning objectives. International benchmarking also indicates
that this model works well, for example the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
is located on the campus of the University of Stanford, and leads initiatives, nationally and
internationally, using campus clusters that undertake time-bound initiatives.
In Ireland, regional clusters that lack the support and interaction with a national initiative are
unlikely to provide good value for money. The level of sharing, trading and collaboration that can
best enhance teaching and learning across the sector can only be achieved through a national
model.
While it is useful that the Academy have prioritised themes to guide its early operations we would
suggest that the functions and priorities should not be over prescriptive. Flexibility should be
encouraged within the Academy so that it can be innovative and creative in its pursuits. Once
established, we would suggest that the priorities of the Academy should be set by the higher
education sector through the means of an advisory board or annual council which would be
representative of the entire higher education sector.
We have proposed a possible organisational model for the new National Academy based on our
experiences with NAIRTL (Fig 1).
UCC welcomes the proposed Governance Model of the new entity, as set out on the HEA
consultation document. A small and non-remunerated Management Board has worked well in the
1
UCC Response to HEA consultation document on new National Academy
case of NAIRTL. We would suggest that the Governing Board of the new entity should take
responsibility for decisions on how the Academy’s funding is distributed. Board members could be
nominated by the representative bodies of the sector and be rotated every 3-5 years, in such a way
as there will always be at least two members who have served 3 years on the Board. The Board
should be informed by a Council Assembly, which would convene annually and would invite
participation from all HEIs and representative bodies including IUA, IoTI, USI, CHOICE, HELT and
QQAI. During its first year, the Governing Board should look at existing teaching and learning
initiatives with the objective of identifying duplication, removing overlap and streamlining services.
The Board should prioritise the objectives set out under teaching and learning in the National
Strategy for Higher Education to 2030. The Board should, as suggested in the consultation
document, be chaired by a senior educational figure, to be appointed by the HEA, following
consultation with the higher education representative bodies. The objectives of the Academy
should be informed by the higher education sector through the council assembly.
UCC welcomes the HEA proposal to establish a new National Academy for the Enhancement of
Teaching and Learning. In this document we provide comments and input on aspects of the
consultation document as well as responses to the specific questions posed. UCC believes that the
NAIRTL hub and distributed centres model provides the best starting point for the establishment of
the new National Academy. Such a structure will ensure value for money and will offer the best
model for the delivery of the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030.
2
UCC Response to HEA consultation document on new National Academy
Responses to Specific Questions
1. Do you agree that the time is opportune for the creation of a National Academy for the
Enhancement of Teaching and Learning?
Yes. UCC agrees that the next natural step is to consolidate the investment in teaching and learning
across the sector within a national academy structure with a sustainable funding and governance
model.
2. How can the National Academy best complement each institution’s own work to enhance
the quality of teaching and learning?
UCC recognises and acknowledges that each institution has its own uniqueness and diversity,
reflected in its strategic plans and key priorities and targets for teaching and learning. The new
National Academy should support and complement activities of HEIs’ own centres for teaching and
learning and ensure alignment with best practice nationally and internationally. In those HEIs that
do not have designated centres for teaching and learning, the National Academy could provide
support and services for staff development initiatives as appropriate. The work and priorities of the
Academy should be informed by the needs of individual HEIs, while informing them about best
practice internationally and nationally.
The higher education sector has benefited to date by being informed about national and
international best practice through NAIRTL. This has allowed for and encouraged institutions to
benchmark their priorities and targets for teaching and learning.
3. How can the National Academy support the continuing professional development of
academics in Irish higher education?
Most institutions already provide a combination of formal and informal support for the continuing
professional development of academic staff. UCC has had its own Certificate, Diploma and Masters
programmes for teaching and learning in higher education since 2004. UCC believes that the
recognition of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) should be a priority and should be
encouraged and expected as set out in the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030. Like the
model of Continuing Medical Education (CME), and that available for many other professional
practices, we would see the benefit of having an overarching framework to record and recognise
the CPD efforts of the academic profession.
The Continuing Academic Practice in Education (CAPE) model proposed by NAIRTL would provide a
good framework to serve, support and recognise the continuing professional development efforts
of academic staff.
4. How can the National Academy assist in closing the loop between the identification of
good practice and the mainstreaming of this practice across the broader academic
community?
UCC, like many other institutions, has a tradition in mainstreaming teaching and learning across the
entire academic community through a multi-faceted range of initiatives provided by Ionad Bairre,
UCC’s teaching and learning centre. The National Academy, through a hub and spoke model, can be
successful in mainstreaming good practice through working closely with HEI centres for teaching
and learning.
3
UCC Response to HEA consultation document on new National Academy
Additional measures, including the provision of small grants, where appropriate, would enable
broader sharing, and the embedding of educational innovations across the sector. The NAIRTL
national grants initiative (160 projects supported to the tune of €1.2 million) is an exemplar of how
good practice can be identified, encouraged and then mainstreamed with relatively small
administrative resources. Several illustrations of how this has worked in practice can be found in
the NAIRTL publications to date and, in particular, in the NAIRTL Grants Impact Study.
5. How can the National Academy further the existing linkages and partnerships with
international practitioners in this field, and facilitate new partnerships with equivalent
entities in neighbouring and other jurisdictions, to contribute to and benefit from the
development of a “global interdisciplinary perspective on teaching and learning”?
The lack of coherence in the past within teaching and learning developments in the higher
education sector is in part due to the historical ad hoc growth of structures. The establishment of a
single National Academy is critical in supporting campus and regional clusters, enabling greater
coherence in the sector. A single National Academy for national teaching and learning initiatives
would avoid reinventing of the wheel and thus stimulate the path of collaboration and innovation.
While each HEI will have its own international community of scholars, both formal and informal,
through research and teaching and learning activities, the National Academy would provide a
platform for dialogue with international scholars for all HEIs. In this way the National Academy
would provide a level playing field enabling all HEIs, regardless of their means, to benefit from the
availability of the highest quality resources, including exposure to international scholars through
conferences and workshops. This approach would be facilitated by a hub-and-spoke organisational
model along the lines of that proposed in Fig 1.
The organisation of international summer schools, conferences and virtual international networks,
could be furthered through the National Academy. Furthermore, the development of strong links
with international organisations would be beneficial in relation to delivering best international
practice to Ireland and communicating best practice developed in Ireland internationally. As an
example, NAIRTL has demonstrated the value of international summer schools, conferences and
networks through its successful outreach and publications and has established functional and
fruitful links with international organisations including HEA UK, the Carnegie Foundation for the
Advancement of Teaching, the Australian Learning and Teaching Council and others.
A policy of using open-source resources, with the creative commons licence, should be maintained.
6. Should the National Academy continue all activities of the existing teaching and learning
networks and projects, funding permitting, or should it review all existing activities and
start afresh following the review?
The Governing Board of the new entity should review the portfolio of teaching and learning
networks and projects across the sector. This should be a concise process with a view to achieving
the teaching and learning goals of the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030. Projects and
networks, with a proven track record as evidenced by tangible outputs and external peer review to
date and the capacity to further the objectives of the new National Academy, should be built upon.
This model would provide quality and value for money. It would build on existing skills sets and
infrastructure through effective and efficient work processes that would involve time-bound tasks
that are aligned with the National Academy’s objectives.
4
UCC Response to HEA consultation document on new National Academy
In the establishment of the National Academy there is a need to review the portfolio of activities
across the antecedent projects in order to inform decisions as to whether to continue, refocus or
wind-up pre-existing activities in light of the proposed Academy’s guiding priority themes and
functions. Any duplication of relevant efforts should be identified, overlap removed and services
streamlined. All current activities should be reviewed in light of their potential future contribution
to achieving the best possible outcomes within the remit of the Academy. The Academy’s outcomes
should generally contribute to knowledge generation in an academically validated and focused way.
Rigour, relevance and quality need to underpin all the Academy’s functions.
7. Should the National Academy be a virtual platform with a physical base in an existing HEI,
or does it need a physical presence of its own that is independent of any individual
institution?
UCC would strongly suggest that the National Academy be established on a hub-and-spoke platform
with a small physical base (the hub) associated with an existing HEI campus and a number of spokes
nationally, all supporting a larger virtual platform.
Such a model is aligned with international good practice, for instance the Carnegie Academy for the
Advancement of Teaching is established on the campus of the University of Stanford , and leads
initiatives, nationally and internationally, using campus clusters that undertake time-bound
initiatives.
This model would ensure that the new entity has academic credibility nationally and just as
importantly internationally, and allows for a combination of bottom-up, top-down and middle-out
inputs. In light of the financial constraints that currently exist, we would suggest that as much of the
money as possible should go into the front line initiatives, rather than investing it in new buildings
or administrative infrastructure. The question of location should not be an issue in the current
technological age. What is important is that the Academy will work effectively as a true
collaborative initiative. Existing successful structures with a proven track record should be built
upon, providing the best value for money. A fundamental factor in the establishment of the new
entity is the development of trust across the sector and throughout existing networks and
platforms.
The structural approach used to manage NAIRTL has proved to be a successful model. The NAIRTL
model is largely a hub and distributed centres model supporting a large virtual platform with a very
lean organisational structure and physical base in one HEI. This model has operated through the use
of existing physical infrastructure and effective virtual working processes and has provided
exceptional value for money and an impressive range of deliverables to date.
As an example of proven good practice and what is possible to achieve through a national body
operating under a hub-and-spoke model we have illustrated below some of the outcomes and
activities of NAIRTL to date.
a. being the only teaching and learning initiative operating with all of Ireland's 38 higher
education institutions;
b. establishing a nationally and internationally recognised and effective web site,
achieving ~30,000 visits per annum from 152 countries globally;
c. its effective governance structure which is informed by an international advisory
board comprising the key international scholars of teaching and learning;
d. maintaining strong links with international centres of excellence, for instance: the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the Australian Learning and
5
UCC Response to HEA consultation document on new National Academy
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
Teaching Centre (ALTC), the Centre for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning
(CIRTL) USA, the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
(ISSOTL), etc.
achieving strong independent quality and impact evaluations (such as the Davis SIF
review, Comptroller and Auditor General report (2010), and endorsed directly in the
Higher Education Strategy to 2030)
has shared best practice through a range of over 50 national and international CPD
events (workshops, conferences and seminars) and through production and wide
dissemination of publications and resources
administered a national grants scheme that has dispersed €1.2 million to 160 projects
involving 420 teaching and learning researchers in 17 HE institutions in Ireland
administers a national awards programme in teaching and learning
introduced a model to formally record and recognise efforts of HE professionals as
credits in academic practice (CAPE – Continuing Academic practice Education) Initiative
informs policy and practice (e.g. its work referenced in the National Strategy for Higher
Education to 2030)
The use of video conferencing and other information and communication technologies has proven
very effective for the NAIRTL initiative and the sharing of spaces across the sector for meetings,
events and activities has worked very well and cost effectively. The NAIRTL model has uniquely
gained the trust of the sector and has been highly successful in fostering collaboration and sharing
of resources. In this regard we would suggest that the NAIRTL model could provide a basis for the
establishment of the new Academy.
27-11-11
6
The National Academy: Proposed Organisational Structure
Figure 1. Proposed Organisational Structure of new National Academy
7