UK Centre for Materials Education
Working with you to enhance the student experience
Working with you to enhance the student experience
The Higher Education Funding Councils in the UK have recently placed a high priority on developing schemes to foster and support education developments embedded within disciplines. Part of the rationale for this is an acknowledge- ment that academics best appreciate, assimilate and implement a pedagogic approach when it is presented to them within their own discipline. In addition, it is felt that many university centrally based educational centres have not been as affective as predicted. This may in part be due to their generic nature and their inability to enter into subject level discussions with academics.
There are now two major national schemes that provide a subject-based approach to tackling educational issues. These are:
The FDTL is largely concerned with the development and dissemination of best practice. Almost half of the projects announced in phase three are in engineering related areas, including three projects within the area of materials technology. These projects are:
DOITPOMS, Cambridge University, Prof Bill Clyne
The aim of this project is to build on recognised expertise in the use
of information Technology (IT) in enhancing the student learning experience
and to disseminate these techniques within the materials education community.
Tutoring materials, Imperial College, Dr Caroline
Baillie
The overall aim of this project is the identification of good practice
in materials tutoring and the encouragement and provision of support for
lecturers and tutors who are interested in improving their practice.
The keynote project, Nottingham Trent University,
Dave Allen
This project will focus on discipline aspects of textiles, fashion and
printing. It is designed to develop key skills in the curriculum and prepare
students for future employment and life-long learning.
The Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) is a new national initiative for the implementation of 24 Subject Centres, with the aim of stimulating the sharing and dissemination of good practice and innovation in learning and teaching through the provision of subject based support. A Centre has been funded for materials education, in addition to a separate Centre for engineering education.
The Materials Subject Centre is funded to support the unique need of programmes specialising in materials, including metallurgy, ceramics, textiles, paper and polymer technology. The Centre aims to develop and support a national network and community of academic staff interested in materials education. The Centre will support this network with a library of teaching resources, web-site, publications, workshops, visits to departments, and individual support.
Within the UK materials is considered a very particular discipline with a broad remit. Students in materials need to develop their ability as physicists, chemists, and often biologists as well as applying their training to all other branches of engineering. At present however, materials programmes in the UK are closing or being subsumed by engineering programmes. This is largely due to the low numbers of applicants. This deficit is considered to be due to a lack of knowledge and understanding about the subject by school teachers and careers advisors. The new Centre will aim to maintain the existence of materials as a unique 'interdisciplinary' discipline alongside the provision of materials taught within engineering and related programmes.
The LTSN Materials Subject Centre aims to support a collaborative network of academics interested in developing materials education and also provide a forum to address issues relevant to teaching and learning in materials. Three FDTL projects will be actively engaged in developing teaching practices within materials education. The Centre will help disseminate the outcomes from these projects to help all departments to offer modern programmes, which will prove attractive to students.
