The Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCLTHE) is approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). This enables nurses and midwives who have completed the course, together with the additional requirement of a teaching practice portfolio, to record their qualification on the NMC register. The requirement for nurses and midwives to achieve recorded teacher status is laid out in the ‘Standards to support learning and assessment in practice’ (NMC, 2008). The standards take the form of a single developmental framework, which includes outcomes for mentors and practice teachers.
The ADC works in partnership with the Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences to address the quality assurance and quality enhancement issues relating directly to nursing and midwifery staff.
As part of the quality processes, the NMC undertakes an annual review of programmes delivered by the Faculty, and this year the PGCLTHE was included in the review. The reviewers’ visit took place on 1–2 February 2011, entailing scrutiny of documentation and processes, visits to clinical practice areas, and interviews with a range of stakeholders. Verbal feedback was extremely
positive, particularly in relation to standards of teaching and the responsiveness and accessibility of academic staff. The reviewers concluded that all risks were controlled, and scored the provision as ‘good’ in all six aspects, with a commendation for partnership working with local stakeholders.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this outcome. The PGCLTHE will be revalidated in the 2011/12 academic year, and we hope to work with staff and course participants to build on this success and to continue to serve the specific needs of nursing and midwifery staff.

I arrived at Kingston only shortly before HEFCE launched in 1999 the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund (TQEF) to raise the status of and support developments in learning and teaching. At the time I failed to grasp the full significance of this development as I thought universities would be full of people discussing teaching and assessment strategies and working on innovative projects. Well, actually, Kingston University does have a large number of staff who are interested in learning and teaching and TQEF and its sister, Widening Participation (WP) funding, have been able to contribute in some small way to supporting initiatives, giving people the space to “have a go” at innovating or finding out about how their students learn.

Kingston’s approach was innovative in the sector. We were one of the first universities to try to bring together various strategies by earmarking some of the WP postcode funding to support students once they were “on course” (thus freeing up TQEF for developments in e-learning) and by using Rewarding and Developing Staff monies for the establishment of Teaching Fellowships to offer rewards to a small number of staff for consistently being good teachers. (We will soon be producing a publication on the Teaching Fellowship projects).

It isn’t possible here to list all the work that has been undertaken as part of this work but I’d like to mention some of the highlights:

• The Learning and Teaching Co-coordinators, funded by WP, who have supported me and my ADC colleagues with the projects, initiatives such as the Key Skills Frameworks, Induction and Transition, Assessment and Feedback, the annual conferences, the meetings, the PG Cert and literally dozens of other things.

Thank you: Debbie Anderson, Joanna Bailey, Vera Bermingham, James Denholm-Price, Parastou Donyai, Nick Freestone, Carol Gartrell, , David Hodgson, Stuart Marks, Shell Morgan, Libby Rothwell, Neil Thomas, Cheryl Whiting

• The projects-dozens of them: Learning Spaces (all those photos of staircases!), Student support (academic skills, peer assisted learning, support for international students, MathsAid), Group work, practice learning as well as many on learning technologies.
• The revision and expansion of the Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education to meet the needs of a wider range of staff and to bring our work into line with the UK Professional Standards Framework.

In order to receive the initial TQEF funds we had to demonstrate that we had in place a Learning and Teaching Strategy. This was launched in 2000, was updated in 2003 and re-emerged as the Quality Enhancement Strategy in 2006. In September 2009 a new Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy will be launched which hopes to make use of lessons learned and to give faculties the scope for developing their own action plans to meet the goals of the new strategy within their own contexts.

The past ten years have seen some amazing developments in Learning and Teaching at Kingston (see Libby and Stuart’s article below). The Learning and Teaching Team in the ADC are looking forward to working with colleagues across the institution on the next step.

Marion Webb
Head of Leaning and Teaching Development

Jake Abrams, principal lecturer in the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture has been named Kingston University’s Teacher of the Year. Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Mary Stuart presented Jake with his £700 award at a special event held in the John Galsworthy Building, Penrhyn Road on 10 June.

Staff and students described Jake as “an exceptional teacher who continues to inspire and innovate”; “the best teacher I have ever met”; someone who “gives his students the feeling that he really cares for them.” A postgraduate student said Jake dragged his students “out of the comfortable cosy corner of your current work and off into new and uncharted territory”.

“Coming from an institution that really prides itself on the quality of teaching in all faculties, I’m very chuffed!” Jake said.

Jake first arrived at Kingston as a student more than 20 years ago, later returning as a tutor. He teaches the renowned BA Illustration and Illustration, is active in bringing publishers and arts organisations to the University, and is a strong advocate of event-based learning. This work has seen recent collaborations with the London Symphonietta Orchestra, the Science Museum and GlaxoSmithKline.

“I only wish I had more days with this kind of teaching!”

Teachers were nominated for the award by their colleagues and the winner was chosen on the basis of peer and student testimonies. This year’s nominees were: Gregory Durston, Selwyn Seymour, and Amanda Shantz  from Business and Law; James Denholm–Price and Dimitris Tsaptsinos from CISM; Maia Ibsen and Chris Welch from Engineering; Andy King and David Osbon from FASS; Malcolm Jones from Health and Social Care Sciences; and Stuart Downward, Reem Kayyali and Nicholas Freestone from Science.

“It is an honour to be taught by such a professional.”
Mary Stuart said it was great to have another opportunity to celebrate the high standards of teaching at Kingston. “We are sending people into the world inspired. Our NSS results say we have brilliant teachers, teachers who make our students think in different ways.”

Peer mentors: the winners

This year, £100 prizes were given to student peer mentors in each Faculty. The winners are:

Natalja Petkune (Engineering); Helen Game (Health and Social Care Sciences); Simon Lambe (FASS); Sharmelan Murugiah (FADA); Ashmeet Wadwa (Business and Law); Norbert Buch (CISM); and Iona Baker (Science).

Third year Architecture student Sharmelan was delighted with the award, which he received for mentoring younger students with their dissertations. “Because I have been through the system myself, I can be more sympathetic with their crits and reviews,” he said. He said he had learned a great deal from his own mentor, Academic Support Manager Denise Yue. “She’s at the heart of the School of Architecture. I learned a lot from her, such as stress and time management, and have been able to pass the lessons on.”

The event was organised by Marion Webb and her colleagues in the Academic Development Centre.