A Look to the Future for University Technical Staff: Challenges & OpportunitiesKelly Vere

kelly.vere@nottingham.ac.uk @kellyvere

Outline

• Introduction and background• The role of the university technician • Challenges• Opportunities• Putting opportunities into practice

About Me• One of over 600 technicians at

the University of Nottingham.• Joined as a trainee technician in

1999.• STEM background • I’m cross faculty – based in both

the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and the Faculty of Engineering – IBIOS.

• Research, teaching & management responsibilities.

Over 20,000 technicians in HE who are crucial to the success of their institutions

MA Higher Education (2008-2011) – HEFCE Scholarship

The Invisible Workforce? “Because technicians work in organisations that tend to be dominated by other occupational groups, especially professionals such as doctors, scientists and engineers, technicians constitute an almost invisible part of the workforce.”

Shaplin (1989)

Technicians 350 years ago….

Boyle & Hooke 1657

Guericke’s early air pump – early 1660’s.

Technicians 50 years ago….

• Very limited responsibilities

• Little contact with students

• Predominantly involved with setting up equipment for teaching practicals

• No formal qualifications required

Technicians Today… Over 20,000 technicians working in higher education in the UK.

Technical staff make a vital contribution towards our institutions’ aims to deliver excellence in research, teaching & the student experience.

We work in a diverse range of areas from archaeology to zoology. (We don’t all wear white coats!)

Over the years our role has diversified - we are not simply the stereotypical technician in a white coat wheeling equipment from lab to lab.

Alongside the provision of traditional technical duties many technicians today collaborate on cutting edge research and make a substantial contribution to the student teaching & learning experience.

We’re also well qualified - over 50% of technical staff in the UK are educated to undergraduate degree level or above. Many have postgraduate qualifications and we have an expert and experienced skills base.

Crucial resource for our universities.

The Multi-Faceted Role of a HE Technician

TEACHMANAGE

SAFETY

EQUIPMENTFINANCE

WRITERESEARCH

ADVISE

ADMINISTER

INNOVATE

ANALYTICAL SERVICES

• This diversification of the role of the technician is a fantastic opportunity for us to contribute to sector’s core activities.

• It is real - these changes in our role have been

noted in varying policy documents.

• 3 Key reports/policy documents specifically on technicians working in HE over the past 15 years.

• All three of these identify problems facing HE technicians and recommend actions.

1998 Royal Society Report “Technical and Research Support in the Modern Laboratory”

Acknowledges that technicians play a vital part in research teams and yet there is little focus on them when it comes to research policy.

Notes that the technicians role had changed over the past 20 years as has the mechanism for how technical support is provided.

Expresses concern over the substantial decline in core technical support staff.

Urges Universities and Research Councils to ensure that the continuity of technical skills is maintained.

Recommends that there be no further reduction in technical support as this would be detrimental to the quality of UK research and teaching.

Recommends a more integrated approach to career opportunities and training is required in line with research staff to ensure technicians are “enabled to contribute fully to the research effort”

ACTION?

2004 Evidence Ltd report “Highly Skilled Technicians in Higher Education”

commissioned by HEFCEFocuses on the way skilled technical work is organised and delivered in UK HEIs.

Acknowledges the importance of technicians to a University’s research activities.

Acknowledges the lack of career opportunities

Traditional trainee scheme redundant in many Universities. Due to increase in students attending universities it is graduates who are applying for junior technical posts in HE.

Problems with recruiting and retaining highly skilled technicians.

Low social esteem associated with the role of the technician.

Recommends a “serious overhaul in both career structures and employment attitudes” in order to attract people to take up technical posts in Universities

ACTION?

2011 “Technicians Under the Microscope” A Study of the Skills and Training of University and Laboratory and Engineering Workshop Technicians

Paul Lewis and Howard Gospel – commissioned by the Gatsby Foundation.

Examines the tasks university technicians undertake and how they are organised as well as the type and level of skills required.

Explores how universities set about fulfilling their need for suitably qualified and skilled technicians.

Notes the lack of career opportunities and professional development available to technicians in universities.

Acknowledges the invisibility of the role can lead to a neglect by academic institutions when future strategies and policies are being devised.

Suggests a professional registration scheme would enhance the esteem in which the role of the technician is held by focussing attention on the high skills base technicians provide.

4 Main Problems to Solve

Research

Safety Students

Teaching

Staff

“I’m just the

technician”

Whilst there have been calls for action to recognise the contribution of technicians in higher education there has been little action within HEIs to date.

Not surprising therefore that technicians report feeling invisible and excluded. Universities geared up for academic or administrative staff and technicians are often overlooked.

Technicians as Teachers

• Our role has evolved - We do teach!• Reluctance by HEIs to formally recognise

this – “technicians don’t teach, they demonstrate”

• We should be provided with resources to support these activities.

• Example - PGCHEs a requirement for new academic staff.

• Technicians often have a lot more contact time with students than academics!

• Higher fees – students will be wanting quality assurance.

“The technician role is increasingly growing to include the demonstration of concepts and theory and is ultimately moving towards an active teaching role, away from a pure technician’s role’”

PA Consulting - HEFCE 2010.

Technical Representation at Senior Management Level

• Little representation at senior management level

• Little influence on strategies and policy.

• Poor communication.• Technical staff report a feeling

of exclusion. • Why? Do we have nothing to

contribute? • Is it because we don’t engage

with them? Do you know your institution’s 5 year plan?

Social Status of Technical Staff

The lack of professional recognition has contributed to a perceived low social status…………..yet we’re highly qualified and very experienced.

Our salaries can be on par with postdoctoral researchers, lecturers & managers - we should not be second class citizens – we have a lot to offer.

Long term invisibility had led to inertia amongst some HE technicians – we do not help ourselves sometimes! Easy to say “well I’m just the technician!”

This is one of the major challenges for technical staff. It is crucial that we obtain professional recognition for the roles we undertake and promote the concept of the professional technician.

“I’m just the technician”

“Esteem is accrued to research leaders rather than research teams.”

Evidence Ltd (2004) 

Professional & Career Development

Technicians Researchers0

20000000

40000000

60000000

80000000

100000000

120000000

140000000

160000000£ Spent on Professional and Career Development

£

£220K HEaTED Start-Up

Roberts Money

£20 million p.a. for 7

years

Implication that researchers should develop their careers.....

....no implication that technicians should.

Times Higher Education - 14th February 2013 HEFCE Data - 2012

“The challenge for technicians is to establish their role as a career role in the university. As a career role. Not just as a plug in the system to be filled and that’s it.”

Study Participant

“Plugs” can be filled in other ways……….

Times Higher Education - 3rd January 2013 BBC News – 25th March 2013

Detrimental to the student’s teaching and learning experience and to research activities.

Going Forward…Opportunities and Solutions

It is crucial that we obtain professional recognition for the roles we undertake and promote the concept of the professional technician.

Technicians need:• Voice• Visibility, • Recognition• Support • Identity

Now is the time:• Economy• Browne Review

Bigger Picture - on a national level technicians look set to remain in demand.2010 UK Commission for Employment and Skills identified a shortage of technicians across all sectors. Estimates 450,000 job opportunities will be created by 2020. Government call for technical education. Technicians vital for UK economy! UK economy needs innovation – HE technicians make huge contribution to innovation, university spin out companies etc.

• A movement to promote the professional registration of technicians

• Aims to raise the profile and status of technicians working in science, engineering and technology sectors -STEM

• Led by the Science Council and Engineering Council with funding support from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation

• Chaired by Dr Graham Spittle, membership includes Sir Keith Burnett and senior representation from major employers

Technicians Council“Our competitors around the world have already recognized the value of technical skills, and are becoming leaders in technology and innovation. If we are to keep pace internationally and stimulate growth in our economy, we need to do the same.”

Professional Registration – RSCiTech & RSCi

The Science Council has 40 member bodies of which 27 arecurrently licensed to award Chartered Scientist (CSci) status. Eightbodies have been selected to pilot the RSciTech and RSci registers:

• Association for Science Education• Institute of Biomedical Science• Institute of Food Science and Technology• Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine• Institute of Science and Technology• Institution of Chemical Engineers• Royal Society of Chemistry• Society of Biology

The HE Sector must engage with this initiative. It’s happening out there! External funders of technical staff will make registration a requirement of that funding. University students and clients will expect it too. Benchmark of quality that will soon be an expectation.

Sir Keith Burnett and Terry Croft championing initiative.Quality assurance is key.

Quality Assurance• Browne Review: “we recommend that the Higher

Education Council enforces baseline standards of quality”

• No one measures/assesses the quality of technical support in higher education (for anything – research or teaching).

• Technicians receive no formal training for their teaching activities despite technicians often having a lot more contact time with students than academics!

• With the recent onset of higher tuition fees students will want to see the credentials of those that teach them.

Browne Review & Technicians?• Students will also expect that those teaching them have a minimum level

of skill in teaching. Teaching in HE is diverse and a one size fits all ‘license to teach’ is not appropriate.

• The HE Academy has developed a professional standards framework which can be used for accrediting individual institutions’ own teaching development activity so that it meets a nationally recognised minimum standard.

• This allows institutions to design teaching development programmes for their staff which make sense locally, yet meet nationally recognised standards. It will be a condition of receipt of income from the Student Finance Plan for the costs of learning that institutions require all new academics with teaching responsibilities to undertake a teaching training qualification accredited by the HE Academy, and that the option to gain such a qualification is made available to all staff – including researchers and postgraduate students –with teaching responsibilities.

So can technicians demand access to formal, accredited teacher training programmes?

These courses are not promoted to technical staff - technicians don’t know they’re available

HEA Fellowship “The UKPSF has been developed to support educators who are committed to initial and continuing professional development, regardless of whether they are technicians, learning support staff, new or experienced teaching academics, or in leadership positions.“

The Need for Technical Teachers

“know how” as well as “know what”

Changing External Environment

Across the HE sector there is increasing acknowledgement that technical staff do not receive appropriate professional recognition for the role they undertake.

More value must be placed on the technical contribution to HE.

Things are starting to change….several exciting initiatives in place

External Opportunities

Fantastic that these developments & opportunities are out there...…..but we don’t know about them! Often there is no clear source of information within an institution dedicated to its technical staff. Despite there being so many of us we don’t really talk to each other! (perhaps because there’s no clear mechanism to do so!) As technicians we tend to hide in our own labs, offices & workshops.

Important that we break down departmental & geographical barriers and share information – a

much more efficient way of working!

Useful to know what is happening in our institutions and the higher education sector.

Essential that as technicians we create and maintain a professional identity.

Case Study – UoN Life SciencesEngaging our HEIs with Technical Workforce

• 1st August 2013 – the New School of Life Sciences launched at the University of Nottingham.

• Merger of three existing Schools. • Initial presentation made no

reference to technical staff.• When asked, management

estimated that the merger would mean there would be approx. 40-50 technicians in the new School.

• There are 110.

Case Study – Life Sciences Technicians requested a meeting with Faculty Management.

Explained that we were useful in this process – for example – who better to amalgamate health and safety practices for the new school than the very people who are managing such issues on a day to day basis? Who better to organise new teaching lab practicals than the people who run them?

Made a case for technical representation on the new School ‘s Implementation and Management Boards (and got it!)

Established a technical working group to facilitate the merger process and advise the management board.

RESULT - Technicians are influencing policy , practice and strategy!

It is possible! - Shift in social status.

Objective: To create a professional identity for technical staff at the University of Nottingham by:

– Providing a mechanism and network for technicians to share information, resources and expertise across the University.

– Providing technicians with a voice in the University and the opportunity to contribute ideas to professional service units and management.

– Championing technical staff across the University and to build on the high quality technical support that we offer colleagues and students here at Nottingham.

Identified a number of ways we as technicians could engage more effectively within our own institution.

Technically Speaking…University of Nottingham Technical Focus Group

“Technically Speaking…” Conference

9th January 2014. “Technically Speaking…”

Newsletter

“Technically Speaking…” Seminar Series

Technical Skills/Expertise Database

“Technically Speaking…” Workspace

Technical Training Opportunities &

Professional Registration Workshops

Mentoring Scheme

UoN Internal Opportunities

ConclusionsChallenges for Technicians

We must take ownership of our profession , make ourselves heard and engage in accreditation for quality assurance of our role.

By employing voice and visibility we can ensure that professors aren’t the only professionals on campus!

Together with our institutions and stakeholders we can develop a professional and progressive community of technical staff in HE.

Challenges for Universities & Stakeholders

Bold steps required to recognise and invest in technicians through training, support, accreditation

and career opportunities.

Investment is needed to ensure that the sector retains a dynamic and properly equipped workforce to ensure

our students have a high quality technical teaching and learning experience.