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UK Centre for Materials Education
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The DfES has recently announced an investment of over £300 million, between now and 2006, to support quality enhancement in University learning and teaching. HEFCE are now formulating plans to administer these funds and are proposing to establish Centres of Teaching Excellence (CTEs) and to reward examples of good teaching practice.

We can't yet tell you what the criteria for excellence will be, nor can we tell you how the CTEs will be structured or what the application process may involve. However it is certain that to be eligible for funding both individuals and departments will need to clearly demonstrate that they are striving to enhance their learning and teaching practices.

Against this background we feel our main objective must now be to help the materials education community explore and adopt innovative approaches to teaching our subject. In this way we can help you to build the strongest possible case as you prepare to bid for this new funding.

Perhaps you would like to introduce a problem based learning element into some of your courses. Perhaps you would like to explore the use of web based teaching and assessment. Or perhaps you would like to develop a case study approach to teaching certain sections of the syllabus.

Over the past three years we have supported several materials lecturers as they have developed, implemented and evaluated these approaches and others. We now want to share this accumulated knowledge and experience with the wider community, and help individuals to introduce changes in practice. We are introducing a funded programme of support through which we hope to:

  • work with you to identify areas in which you may be able to enhance your learning and teaching
  • supply you with resources that describe different approaches to teaching materials science and give guidance on how to implement them
  • provide you with advice and practical support from materials lecturers already experienced in these approaches
  • provide you with funding to buy time and prepare for any changes you wish to make

In the first phase of this programme we would like to meet with you to provide detail on the support we can offer and to better understand your requirements. To this end we propose to hold a series of regional workshops during September and we encourage you and your colleagues to attend. This is the first step towards involvement in our programme, and where appropriate we will then visit your department to design a programme of support tailored to your individual needs.

If you would like to attend one of our workshops or would like more details of our programme then please contact our Centre Manager - Matt Murphy - by email at murphym@liv.ac.