Invitation 99/48

Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund: funding arrangements

Contents

Executive summary

Section A: Background and key issues

Section B: Institutional learning and teaching strategies

Section C: Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning

Annexes

1. Abbreviations
2. Membership of the Institutional Learning and Teaching Strategies Task Group
3. Membership of the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund Management Committee
4. Methodology and key findings of the review of institutional learning and teaching strategies by Professor Graham Gibbs
5. Institutional learning and teaching strategies: proposed activities to be funded
6. HEFCE regional consultants
7. Funding for the implementation of institutional learning and teaching strategies: indicative funding allocations
8. FDTL phase three: units of assessment
9. FDTL phase three: application form
10. FDTL phase three: criteria for assessment of applications

1. Executive summary

   Purpose

2. This document describes the funding arrangements for each strand of the new Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund (TQEF), which will take forward delivery of the Council's learning and teaching strategy. It announces the funding arrangements and timetable for:
   • the implementation of institutional learning and teaching strategies
   • individual academics who have made outstanding contributions to learning and teaching
   • phase three of the Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (FDTL).

   Key points

3. Our learning and teaching strategy will be delivered through the allocation of funds from the TQEF.
4. Our strategy will direct funding at three levels: the institution, the subject and the individual.
5. We will allocate £26 million to the TQEF in 1999-2000, £31 million in 2000-01 and £32 million in 2001-02.
6. The TQEF introduces an inclusive approach to funding which ensures that funds will be provided to all higher education institutions (HEIs) to encourage development and enhance the quality of learning and teaching.
7. Our support for the subject strand of the TQEF will be delivered through the funding of the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) and phase three of the FDTL.
8. We will recognise and reward high quality individual academics through a National Teaching Fellowship Scheme developed jointly with the Institute for Learning and Teaching (ILT), and through our support for the implementation of reward and recognition schemes within institutional learning and teaching strategies.
9. In addition to the funds available from the TQEF, we will allocate £90 million to institutions in the period 1999-2000 to 2001-02 to improve the capital and information technology infrastructure of learning and teaching. Further information will be provided in a separate document to be published in August 1999.

   Action required

10. The timetable for submission of information to the Council is shown below.

    TQEF strand of activity	Deadline for receipt of information by HEFCE	Expected start date/allocation of funds
    FDTL phase 3	15 November 1999 for first stage bids	May 2000
    Institutional learning and teaching strategies	31 January 2000	March 2000

Section A

10. Background

11. HEFCE 99/26 announced that our learning and teaching strategy would direct funding at three levels: the institution, the subject, and the individual. We said that we would establish a single integrated fund - the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund (TQEF) - to deliver the strategy. This document describes the timetable and funding arrangements for each strand of the TQEF.

    Strategic purposes and priorities

12. Our learning and teaching strategy has five main purposes:
    1. Encouragement and reward. We wish to increase the status of learning and teaching, reward high quality and help those with the potential to achieve high quality to do so. Funding for the next phase of the FDTL, and for the implementation of institutional learning and teaching strategies, will support our strategy.
    2. Co-ordination and collaboration. The TQEF will rationalise our support for rewarding and enhancing learning and teaching. We will foster increased collaboration with other agencies and ensure that our initiatives complement those of other bodies.
    3. Disseminating and embedding good practice. Our support for the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN) and FDTL will help improve the dissemination and embedding of good practices.
    4. Research and innovation. We will build on the substantial innovation in learning and teaching already taking place in UK higher education, and identify other areas where investment in research and development can best contribute to the learning experience of students. We need to continue to support the development of innovative learning and teaching methods to maintain a leading edge in higher education worldwide.
    5. Building capacity for change. The capacity for change will underpin each element of our strategy. Our funding of the capital and infrastructure support for learning and teaching will complement funds available to institutions from the TQEF.
13. The five main purposes of the learning and teaching strategy will be delivered through three funding strands: institutional, subject and individual. These are described below.

    Institutional strand

14. The institutional strand of the TQEF will support HEIs in developing and implementing their strategies to improve learning and teaching. We believe that these strategies will play a crucial role in improving learning and teaching in HE. In particular, funding for this strand could be directed at:
    • developing high-quality staff, including supporting membership of the ILT
    • innovations in learning and teaching, especially in the use of communications and information technology (C&IT)
    • transferring and adopting good practices
    • activity to increase the employability of graduates and diplomates, including work experience and developing key skills.
15. To encourage the development and maintenance of high quality throughout the sector, our support will be inclusive rather than selective. Therefore, all HEIs will be entitled to this strand of funding when they demonstrate that a satisfactory learning and teaching strategy has been developed, is being implemented and can be monitored effectively, and has identifiable outcomes and activities which our funds would support.
16. We expect to allocate £14.5 million to this strand of the TQEF in 1999-2000, £17 million in 2000-01, and £18 million in 2001-02. The allocation of funds to each institution will be determined formulaically using the standard resource for teaching funding as the base.
17. Section B of this document explains what institutions need to do to receive this funding. Annex G indicates the level of funding for each institution, for illustration only.

    Individual strand

18. The central purpose of the individual strand of the TQEF is to reward and recognise individual academics who have demonstrated excellence in learning and teaching. We are adopting a two-pronged approach:
    1. We will provide £1 million a year to the ILT to fund a National Teaching Fellowship Scheme to be launched in the year 2000. We will develop the arrangements for the scheme with the ILT. Further information will be available later in 1999 from the ILT.
    2. We shall also expect institutions to use part of the funding available to them for implementing their learning and teaching strategies to strengthen their own reward and recognition schemes for teaching staff, giving them greater capacity to reward high quality teaching.
19. We will review after one year the operation and effectiveness of the arrangements we have put in place for the individual strand of the TQEF.

    Subject strand

20. We are supporting the subject strand of the TQEF through two streams of funding: the UK-wide LTSN; and phase three of the FDTL.

    Learning and teaching support network (LTSN)

21. The LTSN aims to promote high quality learning and teaching by providing subject-based support for sharing innovation and good practices. The LTSN will consist of:
    • 24 subject centres
    • a Generic Learning and Teaching Centre
    • a programme director to manage and co-ordinate the network.
22. In March 1999 the funding bodies issued a joint publication (HEFCE 99/20) inviting bids for the subject centres. The funding bodies will announce the outcome of the bidding process at the end of September 1999. The subject centres will be launched publicly in January 2000. We will contract with the ILT to establish and manage a new Generic Learning and Teaching Centre (GLTC) to support aspects of learning and teaching which are common to many or all subject disciplines (see Circular letter 16/99). The ILT will also provide direction, management and co-ordination for the LTSN on behalf of the funding bodies.

    Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning

23. We have merged the previously separate FDTL and Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP) into a single programme. We will extend this programme, initially through a third phase of FDTL. We will invite subject-based bids from individual institutions and consortia that have demonstrated high quality in the 16 units of assessment covered by the subject review process between October 1996 and September 1998. Information about bidding for phase three FDTL funds is in Section C of this document.
24. In future years, further phases of the FDTL will be supported as the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) completes its review cycle of all subjects. We will also consider other subject-related schemes which focus on innovation and development activity.

    Support for higher education in further education colleges

25. Indirectly funded (franchised) provision which HEIs deliver through partnership arrangements with FE Colleges will be included in calculating the special funding allocations. So in preparing their strategies, and deciding how to spend their allocations, HEIs should take account of that franchised provision as well as their own directly-funded programmes, in order that all the students for whom the HEI is responsible can benefit from the activities to improve learning and teaching.
26. Further Education Colleges (FECs) with higher education funded directly by HEFCE will not receive institutional strand funding, nor capital and IT infrastructure funds within the arrangements described above. We will establish a separate development fund, at a relatively modest level, to support higher education provision in these colleges. This will include both capital funding in support of learning and teaching, and funds to improve HE learning and teaching in FECs. Following advice from relevant bodies, the HEFCE Board will consider proposals on the nature of, and allocation arrangements for, this fund later in the year. We will then inform colleges of the detailed arrangements in January 2000.

    Evaluation of the TQEF

27. We will develop an appropriate form of evaluation for our learning and teaching strategy as a whole. This will evaluate progress towards our central objective of promoting, developing and enhancing high quality learning and teaching in HE.

    Allocation of TQEF funds

28. The expected allocation of funds through the TQEF is shown below.

    	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
    Ongoing commitments to existing projects (FDTL/CTI/TLTP)	£2.5 M
    Implementing institutional learning and teaching strategies and rewarding individual excellence*	£14.5 M	£17.0 M	£18.0 M
    National Teaching Fellowship Scheme being developed in collaboration with the ILT	£1 M	£1 M	£1 M
    Subject development (FDTL phase three): innovations and enhancement	£3 M	£7 M	£7 M
    Subject-based Learning and Teaching Support Network and capital funds	£5 M	£6 M	£6 M
    Total TQEF	£26 M	£31M	£32 M

    * This allocation includes a contribution towards the development fund to support higher education provision in further education colleges (see paragraph 25).

Section B

28. Institutional learning and teaching strategies

    Background

29. Following the publication of the Report of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (NCIHE) in July 1997 (the Dearing Committee), and subsequent consultation by the Council on the promotion of learning and teaching within the HE sector (HEFCE 98/40), we highlighted the promotion of institutional learning and teaching strategies as a key priority. Learning and teaching (L&T) strategies are essential both to ensure institutional commitment to developing, maintaining and enhancing high quality in learning and teaching, and to raise the profile and status of teaching within institutions.
30. This section provides detailed information on how this strand of funding will work in practice; the information required from institutions; and the timetable.

    Principles

31. The HEFCE's Learning and Teaching Committee (LTC) established an Institutional Learning and Teaching Strategies Task Group in 1998, under the chairmanship of Professor Sir David Watson, a member of the LTC. The membership of the task group is shown at Annex B.
32. The task group made recommendations to the Council on:
    1. The current nature and extent of learning and teaching strategies in HEIs.
    2. The nature of guidance on content and process.
    3. The best way to encourage institutions to give a high priority to the development and implementation of learning and teaching strategies.
33. These recommendations, and a review of existing L&T strategies in the sector, have informed our approach to funding this strand of the TQEF.
34. The review was undertaken by Professor Graham Gibbs of the Centre for Higher Education Practice at The Open University (CeHEP), and took account of responses from nearly 90 per cent of HEIs. The methodology and main findings of the Gibbs review are at Annex D.
35. The Gibbs review showed that the sector is already rising to the challenge of producing learning and teaching strategies, the development of which has gathered momentum over the past year. Most institutions stated that they either had or were working on an L&T strategy, although the documentation showed that most strategies were developmental rather than comprehensive.
36. Most activity related to L&T strategies is very recent, having anticipated or been prompted by the NCIHE Report. As a result, few institutions have experience of implementing an L&T strategy over a period of time or revising it in the light of experience. Therefore, this is an ideal time to encourage collaboration and the sharing of good practice in the development and implementation of these strategies.
37. The Gibbs review showed that the most effective learning and teaching strategies are set firmly within the context of the institution's overall strategy and mission. Therefore, we would expect there to be strong links between institutional corporate plans and the more specific learning and teaching strategies, as described in HEFCE 99/30 and Circular letter 3/99.
38. The review has identified the need to recognise the emerging nature of learning and teaching strategies, and the diverse aims and approaches within the sector. Our funding method is therefore non-prescriptive, but it will take account of the need to monitor and evaluate the effective use of public funds.
39. Funds are not for the production and development of L&T strategies themselves. This is because we expect all institutions to have them in place or to be investing resources and time in their development. Instead, the TQEF support is intended to act as a catalyst for extending existing activity or generating new activities, and to encourage other institutional resources to be directed at delivering institutional learning and teaching strategies.

    Definition of a learning and teaching strategy

40. An effective learning and teaching strategy will outline what an institution wishes to achieve with regard to learning and teaching, how it will do so, and how it will know when it has succeeded.
41. The strategy will be designed to develop the character, and enhance the quality and delivery of learning and teaching, and to improve the educational experience of students across the whole institution. This may include HE learning and teaching which is funded not by the HEFCE, but by for example the Teacher Training Agency (TTA).
42. An effective learning and teaching strategy will link closely with the institution's overall corporate strategy. It will bring together those aspects of the corporate strategy (including policies, services, facilities and resource allocation procedures) which are particularly relevant to learning and teaching. It will also relate closely to other documents and strategies, such as those for information systems and widening participation.
43. Finally, it should show how the effectiveness of the strategy will be monitored and evaluated. Although it may be some time before the full effectiveness of the strategy can be assessed, it should be possible to check annually on the achievement of intermediate targets and objectives. The strategy should also be realisable, and therefore underpinned by an appropriate financial plan.
44. A learning and teaching strategy should be a continuing not a short-term initiative: we therefore propose to fund activities over three years initially (1999-2000 to 2001-02).

    Content and structure of the strategy

45. Institutions prepare learning and teaching strategies primarily for their own purposes, not the HEFCE's. So far as possible, we will leave it to institutions to determine the content and structure of their strategies, subject to the general definition given in paragraph 39 above and the guidelines below. However, to encourage good practices, Annex D provides information from the survey of institutional learning and teaching strategies undertaken by Professor Gibbs. It includes a list of components from institutions' strategies, with possible processes for the development and adoption of a learning and teaching strategy.
46. In particular, we would encourage all institutions to include:
    • objectives which are explicitly linked to the institution's corporate plan
    • targets whose achievements can be objectively demonstrated, through milestones or other measurable outcomes
    • named individuals or postholders responsible for delivering each element of the strategy
    • details of specific policy processes and changes that are designed to enhance the quality of learning and teaching
    • monitoring and evaluation procedures.
47. In addition, institutions may wish to address the following national priorities in their strategies:
    1. Ensuring learning and teaching recognises the diverse needs of an institution's student population.
    2. Staff development, for example recognising and rewarding individual academics who have demonstrated excellence in learning and teaching, and encouraging membership of the ILT.
    3. Promoting innovation in the curriculum, particularly activity to increase the employability of graduates and diplomates, including work experience and developing key skills.
    4. Transferring and adopting good practices in learning and teaching, for example through collaboration both between departments and between institutions. This may be on a regional basis, and may include, in particular, sharing the good practices and developments emerging from the FDTL, TLTP and LTSN programmes.
    5. Exploitation of communications and information technology in the service of managed improvements in learning and teaching.
48. Where an HEI has indirectly funded partnerships with FECs to deliver all or part of HE courses, its strategy should include a section on the enhancement of learning and teaching in these partner FECs.

    How to apply for funds

49. The Council will fund activities to deliver aspects of learning and teaching strategies, rather than the creation of the strategies themselves. All institutions should submit information in a standard format detailing the activities to be funded by the Council and how these link with their strategic objectives (see Annex E).
50. Institutions should submit a learning and teaching strategy, and details of the activities to be funded, to their HEFCE regional consultant by 31 January 2000. Both documents should cover the three year period 1999-2000 to 2001-02. For details of the HEFCE's regional consultants see Annex F.

    Allocation process

51. To confirm each institution's funding allocations, we will not assess the strategy itself. Rather, we will consider the activities described and how well they fit with the accompanying strategy and other information, such as the institution's corporate plan.
52. The information submitted by institutions will be considered by the regional consultants who will make recommendations to the TQEF Management Committee. The membership of this committee is attached at Annex C. As this is an entitlement fund, rather than a competitive bidding process, we anticipate that all institutions which submit satisfactory details of activities to be funded, in line with an accompanying learning and teaching strategy, will receive their full funding allocation.
53. Decisions on funding for 1999-2000 will be made by the end of March 2000. Annex G outlines institutions' entitlement, for illustration only. The grant will be paid in five instalments, from March to July 1999, with half paid in late March 1999, followed by four equal payments for the remainder.
54. Funding for future years (2000-01 and 2001-02) will be released on the production and approval of a statement of progress towards targets set in the original submission. This statement will form part of the institution's annual operating statement to be returned to the Council in July each year, from July 2000. It will need to show that the strategy is being implemented and monitored effectively, and is either meeting or making progress towards measurable targets and outcomes. This process is consistent with our new approach to monitoring special funding programmes, as described in HEFCE 99/30. It reduces the burden on institutions and places learning and teaching strategies within the context of institutions' corporate plans. But it means that we shall pay particular attention to the target outcomes stated by institutions in their proposals, to ensure that they are specific, measurable so far as possible, realistically challenging, and with clear milestones, so as to provide a firm basis for subsequent monitoring.

    Emerging strategies

55. We recognise the need to build ownership of L&T strategies within the institution through consultation, and that this may be a long process involving many different parts of the organisation. We also recognise that some institutions are at an early stage of development, and that it may take longer to work up parts of the strategy (for example, the individual academic reward scheme) than our deadline of 31 January 2000 allows.
56. Institutions may therefore choose to submit an emerging L&T strategy by 31 January 2000, with some planned activities and details of how they intend to develop a full strategy. This will enable the entitlement funding to be released for 1999-2000 on the condition that a full strategy and details of activities to be funded in the remaining years 2000-01 and 2001-02 are returned to the Council by May 2000. We will then make final decisions on releasing the funding entitlement for the period 2000-01 to 2001-02 to those institutions. Similarly, we reserve the right to treat an institution's strategy as 'emerging' if it is clear that there remains a lot of work to do before it can be considered fully developed; and in such cases, the special funding allocation would be confirmed for only one year, not the full three years.

    Promoting and transferring good practices

57. We will facilitate a support programme of transferring good practice, consultancy and generic advice on institutional strategic planning of learning and teaching. Regional seminars will take place as follows:

    27 September 1999 at Kings Manor, University of York for the Yorkshire & the Humber region, and the North East region.

    30 September 1999 at Woburn House, CVCP, London for London and East region, and Northern Ireland.

    14 October 1999 at Chilworth Manor, University of Southampton for South West region and South East region.

    25 October 1999 at Manchester Conference Centre, UMIST for North West region.

    28 October 1999 at Radcliffe House, University of Warwick for the East Midlands and West Midlands regions.

    This programme of support will be organised by:

    Pam Byrnes
    Centre for Higher Education Practice (CeHEP)
    The Open University
    Walton Hall
    Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
    Tel: 01908 654694
    Fax: 01908 858438
    e-mail p.byrnes@open.ac.uk
    Web site: http://www.ncteam.ac.uk/

58. Further information on the seminars will be sent out in August 1999. Each institution will be able to nominate two people to attend. These seminars will make use of anonymous case studies and examples of good practice in developing a strategy and working with one over a period of time.
59. A guide will be produced for all HEIs to support the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of institutional learning and teaching strategies. Further examples of good practice will be available on a web-site, which may also host a 'discussion forum' between institutions wishing to share expertise, problems and solutions.
60. HEFCE regional consultants will also act as a point of contact for institutions as they develop their strategies; they will provide advice on what will be funded and how it can be monitored.

Section C

60. Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning (FDTL): Invitation to bid for funds for phase three

    Background

61. The FDTL links the results of the QAA quality assessment process to the allocation of funds. Bids for FDTL funds can be made only by institutions that have demonstrated high quality in their educational provision. The TQEF Management Committee will be responsible for assessing bids and making recommendations to the HEFCE Executive on the allocation of funds.

    Eligibility for support

62. The aims of phase three of the FDTL are to:
    • stimulate developments in learning and teaching
    • secure the widest possible involvement of institutions in the take-up and implementation of good practice.
63. The primary focus is to disseminate and where possible embed good practice in learning and teaching, as identified in the QAA subject overview reports, throughout the higher education sector. Funding under FDTL is not available for:
    • development of new courses
    • development of new learning and teaching techniques
    • development of computer-based learning materials
    • funding of research on learning and teaching
    • support for the dissemination of good practice if restricted to a single area in a single institution.
64. Applications may be made by HEFCE-funded institutions and DENI-funded universities either individually or within consortia.
65. Applications should relate to one or more of the 16 units of assessments covered between October 1996 and September 1998 and listed at Annex H. Applicants should have quality approved status in the relevant unit of assessment, and grade 4 in the aspect of provision for which funds are sought.
66. Where a consortium makes an application, consortium leaders must meet the criteria set out in paragraph 64 above. This condition does not apply to other consortium members. We would welcome, where possible, consortia made up of partners from a range of institutions, and between those who have demonstrated high quality and those with lower scores in that aspect of provision. Collaboration with institutions where the project outcomes can actively be applied is encouraged. This will help promote quality improvement throughout the sector.
67. For each unit of assessment, an institution can only make one application as a sole applicant or as a consortium leader. However, it can be represented in any number of applications as part of a consortium led by another institution. Institutions may also submit more than one bid where more than one unit of assessment within the 16 listed at Annex H has been assessed.
68. For the purposes of the quality assessment process, some institutions chose to join together two or more units of assessment. Where the assessment has been made on this basis, leading to one profile and one report, the provider as a sole applicant or as a consortium leader may submit only one application.
69. We expect most applications to take one of the following forms:
    1. Consortium applications from more than one institution, relating to one or more unit of assessment.
    2. Applications covering one unit of assessment in a single institution.
    3. Applications from two or more units of assessment in a single institution.
70. However, as recommended by the recent evaluation of FDTL (HEFCE 98/68), where support is given to a single institution initiative, we will only fund activities which can demonstrate:
    • genuine innovation (this must have already taken place)
    • very high levels of institutional support (including some matched funding )
    • a clear and considered strategy for dissemination and transfer to other institutions.
71. Individuals whose work in learning and teaching is in a unit of assessment that does not meet the criteria for eligibility in paragraph 64 above, can bid for FDTL funds as a member of a consortium.

    How to apply for funding

72. The recent evaluation of FDTL phases one and two (HEFCE 98/68) noted that the selection process used for phase two was 'generally sound, robust and independent', and recommended that it should be retained. There will therefore be a two-stage application process.
73. Details on the procedure for submitting an application are given at Annexes I and J. Institutions must complete the application form at Annex I; the criteria against which bids will be assessed are described in Annex J. These criteria represent the key features we would expect to see in all successful applications. Institutions are encouraged to take account of them in preparing their applications. The two-stage application procedure will allow institutions to respond to the assessment criteria in greater detail at the second stage of the application process.

    Guidance on submissions

74. In FDTL phase one, the focus of some projects related to their own interests and needs rather than what others in the subject area wanted or needed. This limited the impact of projects and made dissemination difficult. In FDTL phase two more projects focused on the issues identified in the HEFCE subject overview reports, which resulted in more successful dissemination. In phase three we are seeking to fund projects that explicitly address issues identified by the QAA subject overview reports.
75. Some FDTL phase one and two projects produced learning materials such as CD-ROMs as part of their overall outcomes. In some cases dissemination of these projects has proved difficult because the need for the product was not established at the outset. Applications must include evidence of a real need for any products.

    Subject priorities

76. Activity supported in phase three should relate directly to subject learning and teaching priorities. Many of these will be highlighted in the QAA subject overview reports. Applications should demonstrate how the proposal meets this requirement.

    Dissemination and embedding

77. Some FDTL phase one and two projects had to change and develop their dissemination plans part way through the project, largely because of a lack of understanding of the dissemination process. As suggested by the FDTL evaluation report, expressions of interest should distinguish between:
    • dissemination for awareness - publicity, publications, conferences, web sites, demonstration workshops
    • dissemination for understanding - consultancy, workshops with the active engagement of end users
    • dissemination for implementation - working alongside end-users and helping them to use the ideas and embed them into their departments and courses
    • continuation of activity beyond the funding life of the project.
78. We place particular emphasis on the third and fourth bullet points in paragraph 76 above.
79. Links with the proposed LTSN subject centres are encouraged (see HEFCE 99/20). One of the key activities of the subject centres will be collating and promoting information on good practice for all aspects of teaching, learning and assessment in the centre's subject area. This activity is similar to that of the FDTL programme. To avoid duplication of work we would encourage all applicants to include collaboration with the relevant subject centre(s).

    Consortia

80. Consortia should include a range of providers with a variety of developmental needs. Institutions aiming to submit a consortium bid should provide information on how collaborative groundwork will be established. This should include the agreement of senior managers in partner institutions to provide active support during the planning and implementation of the proposed project.
81. Although consortia were encouraged in both phases one and two of FDTL, in some cases the consortia members named in the original application had little involvement in the project after funding was agreed. To encourage robust collaboration in phase three of FDTL, consortium partners must confirm partnership contracts before funding is agreed beyond the start-up phase. Where projects fail to secure such contracts, we will terminate funding.

    Employability

82. A high priority for all institutions is increasing the employability of graduates and diplomates. We wish to encourage institutions to meet the needs of employers, particularly by creating work experience opportunities for students and developing their key skills. Applications addressing these issues are especially welcomed.

    Accessibility

83. Projects bidding under FDTL phases one and two were not required to ensure that their outcomes were accessible to the learning needs of a diverse student population. This has meant that many project outcomes may not be accessible to some students, particularly disabled students. In line with the Council's policy to widen participation in HE, applications should consider how project outcomes can be made more accessible.

    Funding

84. We have committed £9 million over the period 1999-2000 to 2001-2002 to fund phase three of FDTL. Successful applicants can begin to receive funding from May 2000.
85. We wish to encourage a varied portfolio of projects, spanning a range of timescales and funding levels. Projects should bid under one of the following three categories:

    a. Large scale projects over a maximum of three years, with a maximum of £250,000 in total for each project. This scale of funding would be restricted to consortium projects.

    b. Medium scale projects over a maximum of three years, with a maximum of £150,000 in total for each project.

    c. Small scale projects over a maximum of two years, with a maximum of £75,000 in total for each project.

86. Applicants may include funding for the following areas:
    • buying out staff time
    • recruiting new project staff
    • buying in external expertise
    • dissemination of project outcomes
    • travel and subsistence
    • equipment (up to 10 per cent of the total project cost)
87. Funding of staff time should include activities such as project management and project evaluation.
88. The value for money of all project activity should be clearly demonstrated. The amount of funding requested must be commensurate not only with the cost of that activity but also with the eventual outcomes of the project.
89. The allocation of funds by the Council for any project supported under this initiative will be deemed to include VAT where applicable.

    Support costs

90. We will pay support costs only as they relate to the project's specific activities. Institutions should be able to demonstrate that they have robust costing systems in place which conform to the Council's guidance on costing (HEFCE M 13/97), and that these form part of the institution's costing and pricing strategy. The total budget should include an outline of how the support costs were calculated.
91. Support costs should be included in the total amount of funding requested and should not take the bid over the thresholds described in paragraph 84.

    Application procedure

    Stage one applications

92. Applicants should complete the application form at Annex I and submit an application of no more than 2,500 words outlining their proposed project.
93. Please send four hard copies of the bid, to arrive no later than midday on Monday 15 November 1999 to:

    Gerry Taggart
    FDTL/TLTP
    Project Manager
    HEFCE
    Northavon House
    Coldharbour Road
    Bristol, BS16 1QD

94. One copy must be on white A4 single-sided paper, unbound and with all pages numbered. We will not accept late applications or facsimile or e-mail copies.

    Stage two: detailed bids

95. We will provide decisions on stage one bids by Friday 31 December 1999. Where we consider the first stage bid provides a firm basis for stage two we will provide feedback to help institutions develop a detailed bid. Where an institution is not invited to submit a stage two bid, we will provide feedback on the reasons for this decision.
96. We will require no more than 5,000 words in support of applications at the second stage.
97. For those institutions invited to submit a stage two bid, the Council and the FDTL/TLTP National Co-ordination Team (NCT) will be running an advice seminar in the week beginning Monday 17 January 2000. All second stage applicants are encouraged to send a representative to the seminar, details of which will be included with the feedback on stage one. The deadline for second stage bids is midday on Friday 10 March 2000.
98. We will provide a small amount of funding to help institutions develop consortia bids in stage two. This will be a maximum of £1,000 and should be used to cover any expenses incurred in holding meetings of consortia members. We would expect the quality of the detailed bids to reflect the resources we are allocating for this purpose, and reserve the right to withhold or reduce the payment where we judge this is not the case. Funding to develop consortia bids will only be available to institutions invited to continue to stage two.

    Co-ordination and management of the programme

99. The National Co-ordination Team (NCT) based at CeHEP at the Open University co-ordinates the 63 projects funded under phases one and two of the FDTL, and the 32 projects funded under phase three of the TLTP. The team:
    • provides educational development support for individual projects and for project staff
    • supports the management of individual projects
    • encourages co-ordination and connections across projects
    • collects and disseminates information on FDTL/TLTP projects and for the two programmes as a whole
    • provides advice and guidance to the HEFCE and DENI
    • facilitates the management of change in learning and teaching.
100. The NCT fulfils its responsibilities by:
     • visiting projects, and project events and meetings
     • giving advice and feedback on questions and issues raised by projects
     • running workshops and editing briefings on themes common across projects, such as project management, dissemination and evaluation
     • sharing information across projects through a newsletter and web-site
     • organising annual conferences for the projects.
101. Projects will be required to co-operate with the NCT and produce quarterly reports for the NCT detailing progress against their project plans.
102. The HEFCE will require annual monitoring information and financial expenditure statements on all funded projects. A project's funding in years two and three of the programme will depend on satisfactory progress being made towards its aims and objectives.
103. We will continue to evaluate the programme to ensure that the aims of the FDTL have been realised, and that value for money has been obtained. The first evaluation was very positive and contributed towards the development of FDTL phase three (HEFCE 98/68). To ensure the smooth running of subsequent evaluations, co-operation with the external evaluators will be a condition of funding under phase three.

     Timetable

104. The timetable for the FDTL programme is:

     Date	Event
     Midday Monday 15 November 1999	Deadline for submission of stage one bids to the HEFCE
     By Friday 31 December 1999	Institutions receive feedback and decision from the HEFCE on their stage one bids
     In week beginning Monday 17 January 2000	HEFCE/NCT advice seminar to support institutions in preparing bids for stage two
     Midday Friday 10 March 2000	Deadline for second-stage bids to be submitted to the HEFCE
     By Friday 28 April 2000	Letters sent to stage two applicants with results of the bidding process
     From May 2000	Funded projects begin

     Further information

105. All publications mentioned in this invitation to bid can be found through 'publications' on the HEFCE web page at http://www.hefce.ac.uk
106. If you wish to discuss any aspect of the FDTL programme please contact:

Annex A

Abbreviations

Annex B

Membership of the Institutional Learning and Teaching Strategies Task Group

Annex C

Membership of the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund Management Committee

Annex D

Methodology and key findings of the review of institutional learning and teaching strategies by Professor Graham Gibbs

1. Methodology

2. The Council commissioned Professor Graham Gibbs of the Centre for Higher Education Practice at the Open University (CeHEP) to carry out a review of L&T strategies. This review has been used to inform the development of the funding methodology, as well as to identify good practice in the sector.
3. In January 1999, 134 HEIs were asked to return a short questionnaire and any documentation relevant to any learning and teaching strategy. In all, 116 replies were received, an excellent response rate of 87 per cent. This indicates the widespread interest in the subject.
4. The study was also informed by a review of other documents and publications, telephone interviews with those responsible for institutional learning and teaching strategies, and information provided by staff in about 30 institutions in other countries.
5. The good practice and case studies identified will be used in seminars and consultancy which will take place in autumn 1999. All responses to the review will be treated as confidential, and no identifying details will be divulged without an institution's permission.

   Key Findings

6. About half of all institutions claimed that they already have a learning and teaching strategy of some kind and the other half report that their strategy is already under development. Only 3 per cent of our respondents have no plans to develop such a strategy, and only a very small number questioned the value of L&T strategies.
7. However, the documentation showed that most strategies were developmental rather than comprehensive. As one would expect, the documentation was also extremely variable in both content and scope.
8. The most effective strategies outlined what the institution wished to achieve with regard to learning and teaching, how it would do so, and how it would know when it had succeeded. Successful strategies are also reviewed or revised regularly.
9. Less effective strategies contained only some of the possible components; in particular, only about one-third of L&T strategies contained targets, plans for implementation, methods of monitoring progress, or a way of evaluating impact. It is important to include these so that institutions can tell if the implementation of their current L&T strategy is effective or worthwhile.
10. Most activity related to L&T strategies is very recent, having anticipated or been prompted by the NCIHE Report. As a result, few institutions have experience of implementing a strategy over a period, or revising it in the light of experience. About 90 per cent of learning and teaching strategies are either drafts or in their first cycle of implementation. This is therefore an ideal time to encourage collaboration and the sharing of good practices in the development and implementation of these strategies.

    Components of learning and teaching strategies

11. L&T strategies were found to contain one or more of the following 12 components, in varying combinations. Boundaries between these components are not always clear cut and the language used to describe them varies greatly. The categories found were:
    1. Context: an analysis of the problems or environment the institution finds itself in that produce the pressures to change. Examples included meeting the needs of more diverse students, overcoming reduced resources, increasing retention and improving QAA outcomes.
    2. Process of creation: a description of how and why the strategy was developed and how 'ownership' was achieved.
    3. Objectives: a statement of where the institution is trying to get to in terms of L&T, and a rationale for this in the form of a mission or vision. Examples include: improving access for specified student groups, improving retention, and increasing student employability.
    4. Culture: what kind of culture or cultures the institution wants (for example, a 'learning organisation', a 'student centred' culture) and what mechanisms might help to achieve it.
    5. Targets: to progress towards objectives in ways which can be measured or monitored, ideally with realistic schedules or milestones.
    6. Curriculum: changes it is envisaged that the institution will need to make in its pattern of course provision.
    7. Learning, teaching and assessment practices: the teaching, learning and assessment methods or learning outcomes which it is envisaged that lecturers and courses will need to adopt or emphasise. This may include details of how synergies between teaching and research are exploited.
    8. Quality Assurance: mechanisms for reviewing courses and, in some instances, for monitoring the implementation of L&T policy.
    9. Quality enhancement, infrastructure changes and resourcing: processes that are designed to improve quality. These include: staff training and development, funding for projects, sharing of good practices, infrastructure changes in the use of learning or laboratory space, library provision, staffing duties and contracts, reward and promotion mechanisms, the way the institution resources L&T, and the uses of information technology.
    10. Implementation: how the process of change will be managed, specifying the responsibilities of individuals and committees and, where possible, schedules. This element sometimes showed how external partnerships and collaboration might be developed.
    11. Monitoring: how the institution will know if the strategy has been implemented, sometimes overlapping with existing quality assurance mechanisms.
    12. Evaluation: how the institution will know if the implementation has been effective, in terms of improving L&T.

    Process of developing and implementing a L&T strategy

12. Professor Gibbs found that the success of an L&T strategy depended on how it was created, and how 'ownership' was achieved within the institution.
13. The consultation process varied considerably. Three examples are shown below:

    a. Some institutions encouraged a wide and creative debate using web-based discussions, working groups, focus groups and discussion papers. An institutional Learning and Teaching Committee then drew these discussions together into a document.

    b. Other institutions established a Learning and Teaching Committee which considered papers drafted by the chair of the committee. These were then sent to departments for their views and on to Senate for approval.

    c. Another approach involved a 15 month consultation process and a paper issued by a pro vice-chancellor (academic). There was both a formal process through institutional committees and more informal input from groups and individuals.

14. Communicating an institution's learning and teaching strategy to the whole academic community is essential if it is to be an instrument of organisational re-orientation and development. However, a number of institutions had experienced very long periods of consultation and had not been able to finalise a strategy.
15. The method of communication of an agreed strategy varied from web-sites, to well presented pamphlets, to substantial written documents. These documents appeared to address different audiences and varied from those orientated to an external audience, to those concerned with regulations and procedures, to those addressing the wide audience of staff. A fourth type was open and self-critical and written to engage colleagues in a debate.
16. There are some examples of comprehensive L&T strategies which have clear approaches for 'embedding' them. For example, one HEI used existing management and quality assurance structures, but introduced new goals, values and processes.

Annex E

Funds to support learning and teaching strategies: Activities to be funded by the HEFCE in 1999-2000 to 2001-02

This annex is available for downloading in Word or RTF formats.

Annex F

HEFCE regional consultants

Annex G: Indicative allocation of funds to higher education institutions for the implementation of institutional learning and teaching strategies

Annex H: FDTL phase three: units of assessment

Annex I: FDTL phase three: application form

Annex J: FDTL phase three: criteria for assessment

These annexes are all available for downloading in Word or RTF formats.