Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy) is a British charity and professional membership scheme promoting excellence in higher education. It advocates evidence-based teaching methods and awards fellowships as professional recognition for university teachers. Founded in 2003, the Higher Education Academy was responsible for the UK Professional Standards Framework for higher education practitioners and merged (with the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education and Equality Challenge Unit) to form Advance HE on 21 March 2018.
History
Development of Teacher Education
The history of teacher training in the United Kingdom is a complex subject. Faced with chronic personnel shortages after the Second World War, the government invested in training programmes and required all teachers (in the state sector) to acquire qualified teacher status (from 1946).
For the next half century, universities supported this policy by providing both graduate entry into teaching and teacher training programmes. In more recent decades, however, there had been a shift towards school-based training for teaching and also a change in terminology as "teacher education" displaced "teacher training".
Despite Higher Education involvement in teacher training, University Lecturers have not required any formal qualifications beyond demonstrating (usually through publications and a higher degree, such as a doctorate), expert subject knowledge. The merits of professional teaching qualifications for University Lecturers became an issue for debate during the later twentieth century.
Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (2000–2004) The Dearing Report (1997) recommended the establishment of a professional body for Lecturers that would define standards and accredit training for university teaching and that, during their probationary periods, all new Lecturers should be required to achieve 'at least associate membership' of the new Institute. The Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education was founded in 2000.
Higher Education Academy (2003–2018) In January 2003, a committee (established by HEFCE, Universities UK and the Standing Conference of Principals) recommended the establishment of a single central body responsible for standards of teaching in higher education. Subsequently, the Higher Education Academy was formed (2003) by the merging of the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Learning and Teaching Support Network and National Coordination Team for the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund. The Academy became a registered company in October 2003 and charity in January 2004.
The Bell Review recommended a single sector agency for equality and diversity, learning and teaching, and leadership and governance in higher education. Consequently, the Academy merged with the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education and the Equality Challenge Unit to form Advance HE on 21 March 2018.
Aims and purpose
Advance HE has stated its overall aim:
Advance HE devised a particular set of standards for university teaching (the 'UK Professional Standards Framework'), conferring professional recognition on academics who have met these standards, and runs the UK's annual National Teaching Fellowship awards. It also provides many online resources, some discipline-specific and some more generic, and organises workshops, seminars and journals on matters of interest. The HEA has a 'policy think-tank' and is engaged in research into teaching and learning, e.g. exploring the applicability of 'grade point average' schemes to the UK.
UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) The UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) for teaching and supporting learning in higher education is a voluntary scheme for describing the competences and values expected of university teaching staff in the UK. The scheme consists of four "descriptors" corresponding to different roles in higher education, and defines the areas of activity, core knowledge and professional values expected at each level. The UKPSF was developed by AdvanceHE and the descriptors correspond to the levels in HEA's professional recognition scheme.