Teaching fellowships

This year the University is allocating £84,000 from the Strategic Investment Fund (SIF) to support new programme developments. This initiative will provide several teaching fellowship awards, aimed primarily at releasing staff from day-to-day teaching and administration for a period of time in order to design new programmes.

Funds can also be used to carry out market research where it is necessary to clarify student and employer needs. One of the University's key strategic goals is to develop high quality undergraduate and postgraduate programmes attuned to the market, attracting students nationally and internationally. However, it is recognised that developing new courses that are internationally competitive requires considerable time, creative effort and administration, and additional support is often decisive in enabling new ideas and opportunities to be fully exploited. The new SIF allocation is targeted at providing staff with the time and support to engage in these activities more effectively. Further details of the scheme are available on the intranet: www.dundee.ac.uk/planning/

Applications should be sent to Susan Rothwell-Smith, Secretary to the SIF Committee, for consideration, or informal enquiries can be made at any time to the Vice Principal for Educational Development, Professor James Calderhead.

Commenting on the funding, James said, "Given the current competition in higher education, it has become essential for universities to seek out opportunities to develop new courses, to attract new students and to identify new growth areas. Staff often have good ideas that they want to test out and develop further but sometimes lack the time and support needed to see things through to completion. Teaching Fellowships will now offer the opportunity for staff to devote much more time and energy to this important activity, keeping University of Dundee programmes ahead of their field."