Integration of central and departmental development — reflections from Australian universities

Abstract

Almost all universities in Australia have a central unit with responsibility for the development of academic staff. Some of these units provide development within departments, either through local delivery of development activities by discipline specialists, through ‘out‐posting’ of central unit staff, or through joint unit/department appointments of development staff. Some departments have shown considerable interest and activity in discipline‐specific academic development. Others have not. Using a framework for the analysis of academic development structured around a ‘local‐central’ dimension and a ‘generic‐discipline specific’ dimension, the situation in Australian universities is explored. The dominant form of academic development in Australia remains generic central unit progammes.

This paper reflects upon the difficult central‐local balancing act in an Australian context, highlighting issues such as access to, and resourcing of, development opportunities; ‘ownership’ of the developmental experience; ensuring that academic development has an impact on the students’ learning environment; and the potential competition between generic and discipline‐based scholarship in the field.

The paper advocates an integrated model for the delivery of academic development and concludes with some of the successes and failures from the Australian experience of the provision of academic development in universities.