Welcome to the new LTSN National Subject Centre for Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences and to this very first edition of PLANET. Our Centre is part of a network of 24 such higher education centres, each one committed to raising the profile of learning and teaching in a particular academic discipline or subject field. Our Centre’s aim therefore is to promote the development and sharing of good educational practice within and across the three disciplines which define our particular remit.
Our role is national and comprehensive. So, no matter where you are based or in what kind of institution you work, if you are interested in the teaching of Geography, Earth or Environmental Science, we are here to help. Our three subjects are already recognised as leading disciplines in higher education teaching and the Centre will be working hard to maintain and build on our established reputation for high standards and successful innovation.
Academics rightly cherish their independence and so the new Centre will most definitely not be in the business of telling staff how to do their teaching. Instead, our approach will prioritise working collaboratively to identify and meet the needs of the three communities. Our key goal will be to promote ideas and practices which will enable staff in the three disciplines to enrich the quality of students’ education.
This goal will be achieved through a range of activities and services such as national conferences, departmental workshops, a staff advisory service, special dissemination projects, good-practice databases, an information gateway and our website news service. Our bi-annual publication, PLANET, will also help to keep staff abreast of new developments and provide a forum for debating current issues.
Based at the University of Plymouth, the Centre has five staff, myself (Brian Chalkley) as Director, Helen King as Centre Manager, Steve Gaskin as Dissemination Co-ordinator, plus Judith Gill who is our Administrative Assistant and Lawrie Phipps who is our C & IT Manager (though sadly Lawrie will soon be moving to take up a more senior position at York with the LTSN).
Our Centre is fortunate in being able to draw on the services of four part-time Senior Advisors not based at Plymouth, each of whom provides specialist expertise. They are Jenny Blumhof (Environmental Science), Mick Healey (Geography), Geoff Robinson (C&IT) and Neil Thomas (Earth Science). All the Centre’s activities are overseen by a Steering Group which includes senior figures from the three disciplines and from the relevant professional bodies. Its chair is Rita Gardner, Director of the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers (RGS-IBG).
Our new Centre, sometimes referred to as GEES (pronounced geese), represents a significant initiative in the development of learning and teaching across our three subjects. It brings the benefits of a strong discipline-focus together with opportunities for collaboration, particularly with our near discipline neighbours. If PLANET readers have suggestions to make about any of our activities and services, we would be very pleased to hear from you. Our aim is to respond to the needs of the three disciplines (both individually and collectively): your ideas can help and would be much appreciated.