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This is the ILT's February briefing for the Funding Councils, the DfES, Universities UK, SCoP and other stakeholder organisations. It may be freely circulated or published. Please pass it on to anyone who may be interested in receiving it within your own organisation and contact me if you would like more detailed information on any of the items mentioned. Andrea L. T. Rayner Assistant Director: External Relations Institute for Learning and Teaching (ILT) Tel: 01904 434025 Email: [log in to unmask] http://www.ilt.ac.uk FEBRUARY 2002 BRIEFING FROM THE INSTITUTE FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING (ILT) * The ILT has concluded an agreement with the General Teaching Council for England (GTCE) which allows teacher educators to apply via a direct route for immediate membership of the ILT. The GTCE had approached the ILT with a proposal that gaining Qualified Teacher Status and registration with the GTCE were equivalent to completing one of the ILT's accredited routes to membership. The Universities Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET), Universities UK and the Standing Conference of Principals (SCOP) were co-sponsors of the application. Currently, the agreement will only apply to those teacher educators working in England who are registered with the GTCE, but it is hoped that it will soon be possible to extend the arrangement to teacher educators in the rest of the UK. The ILT is continuing to work with other professional bodies to extend the benefits of ILT membership to their own members in HE. * 82 nominations for the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) were received by the closing date of 15 February. The ILT is managing the scheme, which rewards excellence in teaching with 20 Fellowships each worth £50,000, for its third year on behalf of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland. The nominations cover a wide range of HE institutions and disciplines, ranging from Archaeoastronomy to Vocal Studies. The full list of nominations can be seen on the relaunched NTFS website at http://www.ntfs.ac.uk. * The ILT has published for consultation a Draft Continuing Professional Development Framework for its members, which has been developed following a series of consultations with members, HE institutions and other professional bodies. The Framework is intended to assist members to plan, record and comment on their CPD in relation to teaching and the support of learning. Members are invited to consider how they would react to its inclusion within the ILT's criteria for ongoing membership. The comments received by the ILT in relation to this application of the pilot CPD Framework will inform discussions within Council and the Executive to take forward a more formal consultation process with the membership as to how CPD should be integrated into the activity and structure of the ILT. The Draft Framework can be viewed at http://cpd.ilt.ac.uk/CPDDraft2002/Intro.html. * Over 110 bookings have been received to date for the ILT's 2002 Annual Conference and more than 140 session proposals have been submitted, the majority of them online. Over half the Conference places have now been filled. The Conference, which will be held from 26-28 June at Heriot-Watt University, is based on the theme of Learning about Learning. Full details and booking forms can be found at http://www.ilt.ac.uk/iltac2002/index.html. * The ILT's international journal, Active Learning in Higher Education, has been so successful in attracting subscriptions and articles that from 2002 it will increase its frequency of publication from two to three issues per year. Comments from readers have included: 'Active Learning in Higher Education is one of the most exciting additions to the literature related to teaching and learning in higher education. The articles are well-written, bring scholarship into the art of teaching in higher education and provide examples of best practice in learning and teaching.' (Di Marks-Maran, Thames Valley University). * Members' Regional Network Forums continue to be popular and well attended, with around 40 members attending the South Central Forum on 13 February and the North East Forum on 21 February. A special Network Forum for Librarians was held on 12 February at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design. A joint workshop with the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) on Getting published in the academic domain was held on 5 February at Manchester Metropolitan University. Another joint workshop on Students with disabilities: issues and strategies for learning and teaching staff is planned in collaboration with TechDis (the Technology for Disabilities Information Service) on 12 March at Spring Hill College, Birmingham. A full list of Members' Forums is available on the website at http://www.ilt.ac.uk/events/regional_forums.htm. Programmes are normally placed on the website one month ahead of the event. * At the meeting of the Small Grants Sub-Committee on 18 February quarterly reports were received from the 16 recipients of Small Grants from the ILT's 2001 scheme. The panel was generally delighted with the activities of the award recipients to date and will be writing to each of them individually with feedback.