What resources for early career academic staff are available?

Higher Education Academy

The Academy mission is to support the sector in providing the best possible learning experience for all students. Its strategic aims are to:

1. Identify, develop and disseminate evidence-informed approaches.
2. Broker and encourage the sharing of effective practice.
3. Support universities and colleges in bringing about strategic change.
4. Inform, influence and interpret policy.
5. Raise the status of teaching.

The Academy website has a wealth of resources, including a section dedicated to those New to Teaching.

Centre for Excellence in Preparing for Academic Practice

The Centre is based at the Oxford Learning Institute, and is funded by HEFCE to support postgraduate research students and postdoctoral researchers who wish to develop academic careers. It undertakes research on the changing nature of ‘academic practice' and also provides a range of practical activities and tools to support aspiring and early career academics in all aspects of their career development - research, teaching, and other dimensions of academic life (such as administration and management).

Intute

Intute is jointly funded by the AHRC and JISC. It is a free online service providing access to the best web resources for education and research, selected and evaluated by a network of subject specialists. It also provides tools and events to enable students and academics to make the most of these academic resources; and personalised functions such as an ‘alerts' service for new resources.

Beyond the PhD

This is an online career resource which has useful material for all PhD researchers although it is tailored specifically for arts and humanities. It was developed by the Centre for Career Management Skills at the University of Reading. Beyond the PhD brings together audio interviews, video discussions and articles aimed at making visible what happens to postgraduate researchers after they graduate.

Vitae (formerly UK GRAD)

Vitae is funded by Research Councils UK to support the personal, professional and career development of doctoral researchers and research staff in higher education institutions and research institutes. Their activities include a range of events, publications and resources designed to support research students and early career academics.

National Postgraduate Committee (NPC)

Run by postgraduates for postgraduates, the NPC offers a number of general resources for postgraduates on taught and research programmes, including the Journal of Graduate Education and guidelines on practice for postgraduates who teach (GTAs), such as 10 tips for postgraduates wishing to teach (2001) and Postgraduate students as teachers (2001). It also has a list of postgraduate societies.

UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE)

The UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE) was set up to promote the interests of graduate education in all disciplines, providing a distinct identity for graduate education and research in higher education, the development of quality and quality measures for graduate education and research conducted in higher education institutions. UKCGE has a comprehensive events programme.

Preparing to Teach: An Introduction to Effective Teaching in Higher Education
This book can be downloaded in pdf format from Jorum.