The Centre's work in Scotland

The Centre supports teaching in higher education to improve student learning throughout the UK. While the majority of the Centre's activities are on a UK-wide basis, the increasing divergence of the 4 home countries means, where appropriate, the Centre adopts a country-specific approach in addition to the general activities. To help us recognise, influence and respond to local priorities we have a Country Consultant for Scotland: currently Joy Perkins, University of Aberdeen. As a subject centre of the Higher Education Academy the Centre for Bioscience receives funding from the Scottish Funding Council.

This page provides links to Scotland-specific activities and resources, as well as pointers to Centre materials that are particularly relevant to those teaching within Scotland's distinctive education system and political framework.

Centre Events in Scotland

Centre-funded Projects in Scotland

Networking Events Designed to Encourage Participation of PhD students and Post-Doctoral Fellows with the UK Centre for Bioscience, and Promote Engagement and Innovation in Teaching & Learning Development
University of Glasgow - Miss Anne Tierney

Development of Enquiry-Based Learning for Biology Undergraduates
University of Glasgow - Anne Tierney

The MyMuseum Project
University of Aberdeen - Dr Martyn Gorman

A system to deliver oral and visual feedback on-line, personal to each student
University of Edinburgh - Dr Paul McLaughlin

Enhancing the development of experimental design skills in life science undergraduates
University of Glasgow - Dr Jane MacKenzie

Evaluation of interactive teaching in bioscience degree courses
University of Strathclyde - Dr Mike Mattey

Development of authoring software for peer or self assessment of text base exercises using the web as an interface
University of Dundee - Dr Richard Parsons

Other project work

The Centre is working alongside sparqs and Academy Scotland to develop student subject networks.

As part of the Enhancement Theme work the Centre was involved in the Life Sciences Research-Teaching Linkages Project which investigated how links between research and teaching can help develop 'research-type' graduate attributes. A full report Research-Teaching Linkages: enhancing graduate attributes is available to download

Enhancing educational development for new academic staff through the inclusion and comparison of disciplinary pedagogies was a SHEER2 (Scottish Higher Education Enhancement Research - phase 2) projects. The SHEER projects aims were to identify the roles that Educational Development Units and Academy Subject Centres (SCs), individually and collectively, play in implementation of the quality enhancement agenda at subject level

Centre work of particular relevance to Scotland

The Enhancement Themes are part of an approach to quality assurance that is unique to Scotland.

The resource has been developed to showcase the work of the Enhancement Themes initiative in Scotland. The pack provides background information on the Scottish Quality Enhancement Framework and highlights further relevant publications available from the UK Centre for Bioscience categorised against the Enhancement Themes. Read more...

The Centre has further information and resources relevant to the following themes:

Assessment	Responding to Student Needs
Employability	Flexible Delivery
The First Year	Research-Teaching Nexus see also Learning Curve - what makes a good graduate?
Integrative Assessment	Graduates for the 21st Century

Academy Scotland

Support for the Higher Education Academy's work in Scotland is provided by Alastair Robertson (Head of Policy and Partnerships, Scotland) and Graeme Roberts (part-time Senior Associate), who are co-located with Universities Scotland in Edinburgh.

Their aims are to:

• support the professional development of individual staff
• support institutions
• contribute to and influence national policy
• support communities of practice through the Academy's Subject Centres

With the overall aim of enhancing students' learning experience in Scottish HE.

The Scottish Higher Education Employability Network (SHEEN) and Scottish PDP Forum are two examples of projects the Academy is working on in Scotland. Academy Scotland also provides a travel fund aimed at enabling academic staff in Scottish HEIs to engage with colleagues from other parts of the UK.

Other Organisations and Additional Information

Universities Scotland

Universities Scotland exists to "represent, promote and campaign for the Scottish higher education sector. Through this work, it seeks to assist the sector to deliver its essential contribution to the economic, social and cultural needs of Scotland, and to the enhancement of Scotland's international reputation."

QAA Scotland

QAA Scotland has a mission to safeguard the public interest in sound standards of higher education qualifications and to inform and encourage continuous improvement in the management of the quality of higher education.

The Scottish Funding Council (SFC)

The Scottish Funding Council distributes more than £1.6 billion to Scotland’s colleges and universities for teaching and learning, research and other activities in support of Scottish government priorities.

NUS Scotland

NUS Scotland while maintaining strong links with the National Union of Students of the UK, is an autonomous body which forms its own policies twice a year, at NUS Scotland Conference and Council. NUS Scotland's affiliates represent 76% of all the students in higher education and over 90% of students in further education in Scotland.

The Enhancement Themes

The Enhancement Themes initiative aims to enhance the student learning experience in Scottish higher education by identifying specific areas (Themes) for development. The Themes encourage academic and support staff and students to share current good practice and collectively generate ideas and models for innovation in learning and teaching. The Themes are part of the Quality Enhancement Framework.

SHED (Scottish Higher Education Developers)

The SHED website provides a means of promoting collaboration amongst educational developers in all Scottish Higher Education institutions, by sharing resources, delivering support programmes for academic staff and supporting delivery of learning and teaching.

Learning and Teaching Scotland

Curriculum for Excellence aims to achieve a transformation in education in Scotland by providing a coherent, enriched and more flexible curriculum from 3 to 18, firmly focused on the needs of the child and young person.