BU’s Centre for Excellence in Learning- a means to Service Excellence? Professor B Gail Thomas

2 The background of CEL The Centre for Excellence in Education (CEL) was soft launched in early 2013 It aims to create a focal point at BU where good pedagogic practice will be generated, piloted, evaluated and shared, raising the profile of education as a valid source of scholarship- perhaps ‘academic service excellence’ Development to date has included securing an identified senior academic leader (initially Professor Jim Roach and now Professor Gail Thomas) and the secondment of six academics each on a 0.2 wte basis to lead on themes that align with BU 2018 objectives

3 What are the themes? Employability, work-based learning and professional practice- Kelly Goodwin Innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity- Dawn Morley Technology enhanced learning- Dr Gelareh Roushan Student engagement and co-creation- Dr Anita Diaz Research informed education- Dr Jonathan Williams Globalisation, internationalisation and sustainability- Dr Sascha-Dominik Bachmann (starting )

4 How will CEL work? CEL Director & theme leaders Schools/ DDEs/Profs/Aps/Ed ex grads SUBU/students Prof Services- LLS, OSD, EDQ, PGCert & PAL Service Excellence lead Fair access/ WP

5 How are we ensuring education at BU is moving to excellence? Sharing good practice- networking, communities of practice, Website, case studies, ‘Fusion’ blog, eBU, Steering Group, reference groups, links to TELSF, DDEs/ ESEPs, CEMP, ESEC- making the links generally Specific plans include: Education research Academic framework BU Learning and Teaching Fellowships Funded FIF/ pedagogic projects Seminar series Logo competition A home for CEL

6 Our distinctiveness? Andragogy rather than pedagogy Co-creation and co-production: learning from each other and creating together Developing people- adding value Knowledge, skills and values for the workplace Changing people’s lives Independence, autonomy and resilience Employability, taking people along their career journey

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