Teesside University:

Empowering staff through values-driven development

Teesside University’s staff professional development programme aims to create excellent educators for its diverse student body. The programme is empowering students and staff with the digital skills, knowledge, and expertise to flourish and thrive in an ever-changing landscape. This has been recognised as outstanding practice by the TEF panel.

By recognising the distinctive nature of its student body, Teesside University has been able to adapt and create programmes that deliver to students’ specific needs. One programme which does this is the Future Facing Learning (FFL) framework. The framework is central to every aspect of course design, delivery, the effectiveness of learning and teaching, and assessment practices.

The university has fully embedded this programme in its day-to-day work, through its commitment to staff development, investment in teaching and learning resources, digital teaching infrastructures and an integrated and targeted approach to student academic support.

Teesside University is situated in Middlesbrough, with satellite campuses in Darlington and London. Its population of over 22,000 students includes undergraduate and postgraduate home, apprentice and international students, and a thriving postgraduate research community. It has partnerships with local colleges as well as a global network of transnational higher education (TNE) partners. A significant proportion of the students are from local schools and colleges within the Tees Valley, which is one of the most deprived areas in England, with a high proportion of students categorised as underrepresented in higher education.

Within this context, the university aims to provide opportunities for its mix of students through a high quality learning environment with courses taught by passionate staff, innovative learning and teaching practice, applied research, and working with industry and the professions to provide the best possible outcomes for its students.

To achieve this, the university aimed to develop a best-in-class workforce through a strong staff professional development training and coaching programme. It aimed to provide staff with cutting-edge research-informed digital knowledge and skills to design learning that would give its students the skills, confidence and ability to thrive in an uncertain, changing and technologically mediated world.

The university encourages staff to find creative and innovative ways to draw on its institutional values. The university is committed to staff professional development and excellent academic practice through:

• a high proportion of staff having a recognised teaching qualification, and an ultimate ambition for all staff to have relevant teaching qualifications and external recognition in teaching. To achieve this, the university has structured mechanisms aligned with HR processes, including current and new staff without a teaching qualification completing a bespoke PgCert in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
• academic inductions for new staff; promotional pathways; annual professional development reviews; and a range of professional learning opportunities and initiatives aligned to the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF)
• all teaching and learning support staff, technicians and graduate tutors are encouraged and supported through funded continuous professional development programmes to seek appropriate levels of HEA Fellowship
• pathways for advancement to associate professor and professor (Learning and Teaching) based on appropriate expertise and sector recognition for the design, delivery and impact of innovative learning and teaching
• associate professors and professors undertake enhancement projects across the institution to deliver pedagogic enhancement at scale.

In support of its core FFL theme of being digitally empowered, the university launched a mandatory Digital Development Programme in 2018 for all student-facing staff to ensure that digital technologies were harnessed to have a meaningful impact within the classroom. Over 600 staff have completed the Digital Development Programme, with 430 staff going on to be recognised as Microsoft Innovative Educators and 8 staff to be recognised as Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts.

The university made significant investments in physical and digital learning resources, with £280 million invested in the delivery of the campus masterplan to transform the estate and provide vibrant and innovative facilities for students and staff. Every general-purpose teaching room has been refurbished in recent years, ensuring alignment with innovative FFL teaching practices focused on collaborative active learning and enabling its institutional approach to digital learning.

The university also worked to support individual students who face challenges in accessing learning alongside caring and work commitments and wider societal challenges around digital poverty and inclusion. It designed and launched the Advance Scheme in 2018, equipping all full-time undergraduate students with an iPad, a toolkit of apps and £100 credit per annum for the purchase of resources to support learning.

The results for students of the university’s investments and developments in people, physical and digital resources, courses, and delivery have been significant. The university’s National Student Survey (NSS) results in 2022 highlighted outstanding levels of student satisfaction in various areas including ‘The teaching on my course’ and ‘Staff are good at explaining things’. This was further confirmed by the International Student Barometer Survey 2021 which ranked the university 1st of 96 global universities for overall satisfaction with learning. The TEF panel commended the university for outstanding support for its staff professional development and promotion of excellent academic practice, contributing to the award of a Gold rating for the student experience.

Teesside University has achieved recognition nationally and internationally for its staff development work:

• Investors in People (IiP) Gold Award for the professional development and support for staff identified and implemented in the adoption of the FFL initiative 
• commended by Advance HE in 2021 for longstanding institutional commitment to staff professional development in teaching and supporting learning and engagement with UKPSF
• Edufuturists University of the Year 2022, celebrating the best people, schools, colleges, and universities leading the way as innovative educators
• the Catalyst Award 2022 from Anthology for CPD, associated with leading cultural change across the institution and digital learning and teaching excellence
• the first European higher education institution to be named an Adobe Creative Campus, building staff and students’ digital literacies within its FFL initiative
• second place in the ‘Excellence in Digital Innovation’ category of the national Whatuni Student Choice Awards in 2021
• recognition as a Prodigy Learning Outstanding Centre of Excellence 2020-21, as one of only 20 centres in the UK and Ireland that deliver ‘a continuous high volume of digital skills certifications at a high standard to students and staff’
• Teesside’s FFL Conference in 2022 attracted 122 attendees representing 28 institutions, influencing learning and teaching practices across the sector. It provided opportunities for staff and speakers at the conference to share academic practice, present at other events, and engage in research opportunities for the benefit of themselves and students.

The success of its staff development initiatives and the recognition of this by the TEF panel has given Teesside the confidence to build on what it has already achieved. There are significant advancements in digital technologies, particularly with the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) in education.

The university now has a foundation to look forward to focusing on AI literacies through the development of a research-informed, industry-supported AI literacy framework:

• working on a programme of staff awareness and confidence around the use of AI within course design, delivery, industry requirements and assessment design
• reviewing the currency of the entirety of the FFL Toolkit to prepare students for an AI-mediated world, with a particular focus on digital empowerment.

FFL continues to be the primary vehicle for delivering this transformation, being interwoven in every aspect of course design, delivery and assessment and underpins the development and evolution of teaching staff.