ID092 Refocusing Priorities: Teaching First

The Idea

The recent over-recruitment of home undergraduate students by Russell Group (RG) institutions is a challenge for the entire sector. The declining quality of the undergraduate offering in over-subscribed RG programmes is becoming increasingly clear, particularly for the growing number of students with additional support needs. I believe this provides a unique opportunity for Keele to re-position ourselves. We should not be vying to represent ourselves as aspiring to a research-oriented RG-type position. We will not out-compete the Russell Group on research, but we can and do on the quality of our teaching. Seeking to be excellent at everything is not a USP, but promoting a genuine education focus as our top priority, within an environment of high quality research, would allow us to occupy a unique position. 

This is not a proposal to stop research. Research and knowledge generation is a core function of a broad-based university, a key part of our reputation and marketing portfolio, and an important secondary income stream. But our survival depends on undergraduate recruitment; we must be pragmatic about what we can offer to applicants that they can’t get from the Russell Group. 

My proposal is for Keele to proudly show that our top institutional priority is delivering a unique, personalised and supported learning experience for undergraduate students. Keele should be seen as the institution of choice for students who want their education to be the top priority. We can directly challenge the Russell Group, and be the research-active university that doesn’t over-fill their teaching sessions until students have to sit on the floor, or outsource our teaching to AI chatbots, or hide their staff and equipment away behind locked doors. Where some institutions may see careful, thoughtful, well designed (and sometimes time consuming) teaching and assessment activities as being things to cut and sideline to focus on other priorities, I see instead our biggest strength and selling point. We can be the institution where staff make time for every student, who get to know them, who support and celebrate their successes, who put time, effort and thought into their development, and who are there when they need help. In many areas we already are; we just have to be bold enough to say so. 

Why This Idea Should Be Considered

Undergraduate teaching is core to our nature as a university (as well as being our main source of income), and the area where we can best distinguish ourselves from the RG offering. We have many exciting and marketable features which help us stand out, but in isolation from a push to recognise our core offering it is difficult to make a coherent message to applicants.  We have successful research centres, our business park, our excellent campus and green spaces, our community engagement, our consultancy activities, our overseas campuses and many other important activities, all of which help to come together into something special.  However, no matter how successful these activities, if home undergraduate students do not want to study here then we cease to be a viable university; it is their priorities that we must centre. To survive the ongoing turmoil in UK higher education we must show prospective students that if they come to Keele, they will be supported by a community who is prepared to put students and their learning first.

How We Would Implement This Idea

• Messaging: Consistent branding which unashamedly recognises that we put teaching first, not as a corollary of our research strength, but as a standalone priority. And as a result, that Keele students receive some of the best education in the country, as evidenced by a renewed institutional focus on student satisfaction and NSS performance.  
• Hiring strategies: Any post with teaching responsibilities should include a teaching assessment as a mandatory requirement and core criterion, and we must grow permanent teaching-focused posts with progression opportunities. The Education and Scholarship career track must be strengthened, celebrated and supported for full parity of opportunity and prestige with the Education and Research track, and seen as the first-line option for staffing in business cases for new undergraduate programme development.  
• Keele GTAs: A new, unique PhD offering with a formal teaching qualification included as a significant part of their training. This would make our doctoral graduates more employable in educational settings while improving student:staff ratios, providing education mentoring opportunities for staff, and giving our undergraduate students more exposure to active researchers at a relatable career level. 
• Staff progression and retention: Equal progression opportunities for staff who pursue excellence in education, in parity with excellence in research or scholarship.  This means more support/prioritisation for education activities in promotion criteria across job families. For most academic posts, education is the largest component in real terms by FTE, and so should be treated as such when assessing and celebrating performance. Excellent teaching comes from many directions, and no roles or job families involving education should be dissuaded from spending time focusing on this. 
• Student-facing opportunities: All staff roles have the potential to contribute positively to the experience of our students, and doing so should never be a professional detriment or seen as unproductive time. Student-facing programme administrators within schools could be a key student contact point, and we should widen opportunities for technical and support staff to progress and be recognised for contributing to student-facing roles and activities where they may wish to do so.  

What Success Would Look Like

In the first instance, success would be a larger proportion of high tariff students who have the option to choose a RG institution deciding instead to come to Keele, across all subject areas. 

Keele should aim to return to our pre-2020 position at the top of the NSS. Student satisfaction is the feeling among students that they are supported and valued as individuals, and that their learning and success is as important to us as it is to them; there is no reason not to strive for this. 

This shift in priorities should also improve satisfaction, retention and progression for all staff in student-facing roles or with responsibilities for teaching, who would see that all efforts to develop and deliver excellent teaching and student support are recognised and valued by the institution.