Helen Jones, Discipline Lead – Sociology and Criminology Natasha Taylor, Academic Development Officer, Consultancy & Change Programmes Robert Ready, Dominic Wood and Antonia Wood Wrexham July 2012 New-to-Teaching Workshops in Social Sciences

To bring together those recently appointed to or considering an academic post in the broad disciplines and subjects of ‘social sciences’; To consider the findings of and resources from recent research into these new academic staff; Explore and discuss current and future opportunities, challenges and support needs; Extend your networks with colleagues 2 The Aims of this Workshop

Getting to know you and setting the context Your expectations of Academia and ‘Being Academic’ Assessment – is it all essays? Teaching Groups Technology Research Informed Teaching Peer Mentoring UK professional Standards Framework Identifying and addressing personal Support Needs and Discipline/Subject issues Feedback and Your Way Forward 3 Proposed Structure

So who are you? Under one minute! On a post-it, your name, what you teach, one interesting fact about you

Even to those committed to it, Academia makes little sense: for most people ‘academic’ means abstract, conjectural, hypothetical, impractical, unlikely to actually happen, … ; we send multiple s and complain our inbox is full; we read s in supermarkets telling us a journal has rejected our life’s work; our newspaper and magazine articles, read by millions, are ignored in research assessments; our journal articles, read closely by ten people (if we are lucky), are interrogated in research assessments; we are surrounded by students who own better technological gadgets than we do. 5 Welcome to Academia!

Principles : Wide range of subjects – social work to criminology Range of contexts – Russell Group, Million+, HE in FE Mix of career paths – post-docs, professions Often non-social science first degree Mix of motivations – teach, research, status, travel, career Range of student numbers, experience, cultures, languages Cohorts sizes from 20 to 1, NTT Workshop

New Lecturers Project – ‘The 21 st Century Business Academic’ Richard Atfield and Roisín Curran Doing more with less? – a survey of the work/life balance of sociology postgraduates HEA Research Project – Antonia Wood Identity Crisis: Working in HE in the 21 st Century Liz Marr and Rachel Forsyth 7 Recent research on early academics

Post-Doctoral students in their first academic post (increasing %) ‘Mid-Career Shifters’ following a previous career in ‘industry’ (sometimes still in practice) International academics with a first UK post Academics moving from subjects taught differently, e.g. politics, history Academics moving between culturally different institutions, e.g. post ‘92 to Russell Group And many other variations 8 Who are the ‘New Academics’?

Senior managers on early career staff: “They are the lifeline to an institution and all our futures really depend on there being that flow of talent to the institution”. “They bring with them new ideas, new ways of thinking, new ways of doing things”. “They are coming in with a fresh approach to things”. “I think it can shake up teams sometimes (…) questioning the ways things are done”. “They are up-to-speed and at the forefront of their subject area”. 9 You are Valuable within the Academy

What the HEA could do for me: What is the most important thing I hope to learn from these two days? 10 What Is This Thing Called… The Higher Education Academy?

HEA structure 4 broad academic groupings Arts and Humanities Health STEM Social Sciences

Social Sciences Grouping Business and management Economics Education Finance and accounting Hospitality Law Marketing Politics Social policy and social work Sociology and Criminology Oversight of: Anthropology Islamic Studies Discipline Leads for:

Funding and Support Opportunities (for subscribing institutions) Workshops and Seminars, free attendance Individual Grants Departmental Grants Collaborative Grants UK Travel Fund (staff and students) Doctoral Programme International Travel Scholarships

14 Over-arching Priorities Academic Practice Development Teacher Excellence Institutional Strategy and Change View a vodcast by Chief Executive Craig Mahoney HEA Strategic Plan

Main HEA Themes Assessment and Feedback Flexible Learning Internationalisation Employability Retention and Success Reward and Recognition of Teaching Education for Sustainable Development These relate to the key expectations of the four countries through requirements identified by the funding councils

16 Discipline Support through HEA 28 Discipline Leads, balanced across HESA student numbers Directly employed by HEA £1.5m grant funds for individual, department and collaborative bids Up to 10 workshops per discipline plus Theme events Open to or involving HEA Fellows Open to any subscribing institution

So who are you again? Bingo!

Helen Jones – Sociology and Criminology Michael Bromby - Law Richard Atfield - Business and Management Lyn Bibbings - Hospitality, Sport, Leisure, Tourism and Events Lyn Vos – Marketing Dorron Otter – Economics Vida Douglas - Social Work and Social Policy Kathy Wright and Will Curtis – Education Steven Curtis – Politics 18 More information: