Technicians as teachers: the emerging role of technical staff within higher education teaching and learning environments

Figures & data

Table 1. Proportion of UK technical staff involved in teaching HE students, by workplace type.

		Workplace type
	All surveyed technicians	Research institutes	Universities (all)	Russell Group universities	Other pre-1992 universities	Post-1992 universities
Involved in teaching (%)	77	41	81	76	83	91
Total sample population (number)	1760	151	1593	764	328	351

Table 2. Proportion of university technical staff involved with teaching HE students, by discipline area.

		Discipline area
	All surveyed university technicians	Creative arts	Engineering	Chemistry	Biosciences	Medicine, dentistry & health	Physics	No specific discipline	All other disciplines
Involved in teaching (%)	81	95	83	82	79	78	73	58	85
Total sample population (number)	1593	227	206	134	399	183	70	114	260

Figure 1. Types of activity delivered by university technical staff involved in teaching (n = 1309).

Table 3. Types of activity delivered by university technical staff involved in teaching; a comparison between creative arts technicians and those in other disciplines.

	Proportion delivering activity as part of their role (%)
Activity within HE teaching and learning environment/s	Surveyed HE creative arts technicians (n = 216)	All other surveyed HE technicians (n = 1093)
Provide background support	94	86
Prepare physical resources and materials	92	74
Provide 1-to-1 support to individual learners	92	66
Deliver instructions or teaching to groups of up to 10 learners	83	55
Design and/or co-design teaching and learning resources	84	49
Deliver instructions or teaching to groups of more than 10 learners	75	40
Design and/or co-design lesson plans for individual sessions	68	28
Give formal feedback to learners to support their learning	33	23
Design and/or co-design curricula for courses or modules	41	20

Table 4. Proportion of university teaching technicians that have received relevant training, by discipline area.

		Discipline area
	All surveyed university technicians	Creative arts	Engineering	Chemistry	Biosciences	Medicine, dentistry & health	Physics	No specific discipline	All other disciplines
Have NOT received teaching-related training (%)	62	51	70	63	66	56	69	71	62
Have received teaching-related training (%)	37	48	29	36	33	44	31	29	35
Have received teaching-related training as part of an externally recognised qualification (%)	15	32	9	10	10	11	15	11	17
Total sample population (number)	1309	216	176	112	321	144	52	66	222