a row of books

Welcome to the January issue of Teaching Matters!

a row of booksTeaching Matters is the University of Edinburgh’s website for debate about learning and teaching, for sharing ideas and approaches to teaching, and for showcasing our successes, including academic colleagues who are leading the way in delivering brilliant teaching.

Every month Teaching Matters takes a theme and explores it through a number of blog contributions over the month. We also run an events listing page.

The focus for January is employability, introduced by the Director of the University’s Careers Service, Shelagh Green.

The metrics proposed within the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) have opened heated debate on the connection between teaching quality and the destinations of our graduates. While I wouldn’t argue for employment outcomes as a simple proxy for teaching quality, I would argue that the learning and teaching experience of our students has the capacity to open up a world of career opportunities.

The experience at Edinburgh can be truly transformational for our students. It offers a future of choice:  our students develop the skills, attributes and experiences that enable them to choose diverse career opportunities and employers, and to repeat that process in an ever changing and ever competitive labour market.

And, in an ever changing learning and teaching environment, the examples within Teaching Matters demonstrate just how rich, creative and mutually beneficial that experience can be.

We hope that you enjoy this edition of Teaching Matters and encourage you to get involved. Future Teaching Matters themes will include:

  • Teaching beyond the programme – February 2017
  • Peer teaching – March 2017
  • Tutoring and demonstrating – April 2017

If you have an idea or story related to these themes and you’d like to contribute a blog post, video, or other media let us know.

Let us have your news, let us know when you are organising events on learning and teaching we can publicise, sign up to receive notifications when new blogs are published, and send in your own blogs and comments on any aspect of teaching and learning.

Shelagh Green

As well as being Director of the University’s Careers Service, Shelagh Green is President of the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services, the professional association for HE Careers and Employability. She is currently a member of the British Academy Steering Group reviewing the skills and attributes developed through Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

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