Benefits of an Engineering Education Centre

1. Benefits of an Engineering Education Centre Professor John Dickens

2. Outline • Background & development of the engineering L&T support centre • Benefits • Costs

3. Background to the centre • Engineering Teaching & Learning Support Centre • Set up in 1997 with university development funds for one post for two years (CAL officer) • Engineering Faculty funded two additional posts for two years • Remit to support academics in developing learning resources – Learning Technology

4. Operation • Academics bid for centre staff time to develop resources with the academic providing the content • Central expertise to enable teaching to be enhanced whilst not making onerous demands on Academic staff time in a Research led environment • Report through the ADT to Engineering Directorate which controls the internal funding

5. Outcome • Produced 80 internal projects between 1997-2004 • £3M in national & European funded L&T projects (1997-2004) • Distance Learning Materials • Learning Technologies • PDP • Gender Balance • Led the successful bid for the Subject Centre in 1999

6. Engineering CETL • The centre led the bid for CETL funding in 2004 with 7 departments • engCETL funding (2005-10) £2.5M recurrent, £1.65M Capital • Provided teaching & office space • More contact with students & academics • Broader remit than the old centre

7. Student focussed learning space Specified by the staff who teach design A 50-70 seat studio Four 16 seat studios Simulates commercial environment Test bed for AV and learning technology Informal use by students

8. Impact of CETL funding • CETL funding raised the profile of the education centre across the university particularly with senior management • The new space gave clear identity for the centre • Availability of funding increased contacts with academic staff

9. Benefits of a support centre • Provides expertise available for academics to enhance their teaching without excessive demands on their time. • Whist some outputs are generic, being engineering specific is important for engagement with the centre. • Centre acts as a focus for bids for external funding bids. • Departments work with the centre when developing proposals for new programmes that require learning resource development (e.g. Distance and work-based learning)

10. Benefits • Centrally funded L&T staff allocated to engineering are based in the centre e.g. VLE support • Centre work has been commended in the last two QAA Institutional Audits • Cost effective way of enhancing learning & teaching • High levels of student satisfaction (NSS results)

11. Costs • Engineering faculty funds 3 core posts (£160k) and covers indirect costs (e.g. space) • Centre has to demonstrate that internal funding delivers benefits to teaching internally • Centre has to raise external funding and have a good external profile to be comparable to research centres • Post CETL planning is challenging. More expensive space to run and a drop in income of £0.5M p.a.

12. Costs • University investment in the last 10 years of over £1.5m has brought in a further £11m in external funding through the engCETL and Engineering Subject Centre (EngSC) and their forerunners.