Draft Proposal for HEA Development Programme: Executive Leadership of Learning and Teaching

1. Draft Proposal for HEA Development Programme: Executive Leadership of Learning and Teaching • Programme for PVCs/DVCs new to post • Professor Philip Martin • 8th May, 2014

2. Rationale • Original idea for this came from this DVC/PVC network • There has also been ministerial interest expressed in the importance of HE L&T leadership, and how it is supported and developed • The Executive role for this area of work has transformed over the last five years • T&L now sits more centrally in most university executives

3. Pressures and imperatives • Governance: Councils and Boards are increasingly taking interest in teaching performance and student attainment • NSS has become a major KPI; KIS is gaining momentum • Fees and long-term student debt has focussed attention on teaching and learning VFM; risks increasing • Profiling of graduate employment and its link to curricular and co-curricular provision • BIS placing students ‘at the heart of the system’; funding councils’ refreshed missions

4. Programme design and assumptions • Primarily but not exclusively for Executive roles ‘new to post’ and leading on L&T, SE, QA and related matters • Duration of 12 months with an estimated cohort size 12-15 • Design governed by the awareness of the pressures of the role, both in terms of the multiple demands, and flexibility of delivery • Content-rich, not generic, and focussing on current priorities and national policies, recognising institutional diversity

5. Primary Aims 1 • To develop and support those new to role through the programme, its resources, and the network it establishes • To provide comprehensive knowledge (national policies, main organs of opinion and influence, key bodies, contracts, governance) • To enable a sophisticated understanding of organisational structures and prevalent cultures in HEIs • To provide an international perspective on leading learning and teaching, and the academic experience

6. Primary Aims 2 • To provide and develop the capacity to understand risks (KPIs, quality, the student offer and contract) • To establish confidence in understanding the interdependencies of effecting change and delegation • To open up opportunities for networking, national and international • To benefit participants and their HEIs by enhancing leadership abilities in these areas, ultimately leading to an improved student academic experience

7. Outline: Draft programme • Three main concurrent elements: • A programme of Seminars/Workshops (6, each day-long, including an overnight) • Resources, Activities and Visits • External mentorship

8. Seminars and Workshops Sector workings in relation to L&T How HEIs govern and lead Quality and Risk Issues for Leadership and Management New Technologies, New Learning The international Context and the Internationalising Agenda

9. Activities, Resources, Visits Three visits to key organisations, offices or individuals (stakeholders, influencers, or departments) Three visits to HEIs with a track-record of good leadership/innovation in L&T Programme website providing a major resource bank (links to key national documents, think-tanks, policy documents; observatory with guidance to topical matters; discussion board, Director’s Blog) Action Learning Sets and nominated projects

10. Mentoring • Each participant has a mentor providing three 1:1 engagements through the duration of the programme • Mentoring has two dimensions: personal progress and working with the nominated project • Provision for remote contacts (email, skype, telephone) • ‘Rules of engagement’ will be established for mentoring protocols

11. Development Day • Provision will be made for a development day • Participants attend with three people from their teams • To provide a fully facilitated exchange and discussion on the nominated projects and their progress • Focussing on an agenda determined by the participants

12. Who delivers this? • Well …… (guess what?) • Seminars/workshops will each have two speakers with appropriate, current and relevant experience • Mentors will be drawn from people who have been or are role holders, who have the time and the dedication to give to the task

13. Governance and Structure • Programme Board, with stakeholder representation • Programme Director reporting to the Board and the HEA • Administration of the programme provided by the HEA • In progress evaluation • And a summative evaluation

14. Feedback to date • There has been informal feedback from VCs, DVCs, PVCs, including representatives on TQSE • Expressing positive and enthusiastic support • Constructive suggestions about what needs to be in the programme • Broad agreement that there needs to be more on Curriculum and Curriculum Design • And more on leading innovation

15. Feedback Questions for Today • All feedback is welcome, but specifically: • Does the structure make sense? • Is the engagement level to heavy, too light, about right? • Is the content (which is not set in stone and needs to respond to rapid policy changes) broadly right? • Are there glaring omissions? • Who should this be for? Exclusively for Executive roles? • Are there elements of the programme that would be useful for DVCs/PVCs who have spent some time in post? • Other facets of Leadership that experienced DVCs/PVCs would like support in? • A complementary programme for delivery agents?

16. Contacts:Philip Martin: profphil@icloud.comPhil Levy: philippa.levy@heacademy.ac.uk