Scottish Higher Education Developers October 2018 | Page 6

October 1998: held at Napier University
Discussions at this point included the new Institute for Learning & Teaching (ILT), the
precursor to the HEA, which would commence its accreditation services in Spring 1999.
Its stated aim was to create a single national standard for the initial and continuing
professional development of all HE staff with responsibility for teaching & the support of
learning. Interestingly, ILT accreditation of institutional provision at this time consisted
of one day on-site by two assessors contracted to ILT, with the assessors producing the
accreditation report.
Projects announced at this meeting included the ATHENA project for women in SET
(there was no STEMM or SWAN back then) launched in February 1999. Also, the Women
in HE Register was a nnounced – were women in HE so unusual in 1998 as to require
such a thing? Personal Development Planning (PDP) was high on institutional agendas at
this time, with the findings from the February 1998 Recording Achievement Consortium
conference being reported.
March 2003: held at Queen Margaret University College
In 2003 the establishment of the Scottish Quality Enhancement Framework (QEF) saw
a major departure from the quality assurance systems south of the border. As part of
this, the first ELIR was being planned around this time, with the University of Glasgow,
Bell College and QMUC being the first institutions to take part. Alongside ELIR, the first
two Enhancement Themes (Assessment and Responding to Student Needs) were being
set up, without representation on the associated steering groups from educational
development, much to the consternation of EDSC at the time, it seems.
Projects going on at the time were so numerous as to create some form of acronym
bingo: check out SERF, ESCALATE, ESECT, SENLEF & ELF.
ILTHE’s Professor Brenda Smith led a discussion outlining an ‘Academy for the
Advancement of L&T’, highlighting that this new body would have 25 discipline-focussed
sub-sections, which later became the much-lauded Subject Centres along with the
‘Generic Centre’ to serve the needs of educational developers and educationalists more
widely.
Also on the agenda this time was SHEFC consultation doc 03/03 stating that all new
staff should have a qualification in teaching by 2006 (desirable not expected).
The first SEDA Professional Development Framework (SEDA-PDF) scheme was
announced, being run by the Open University and focussing on Learning, Teaching &
Assessment.
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Celebrating 25 years of SHED