This paper was presented at the 2008 Engineering Conference - Innovation Good Practice and Research in Engineering Education.
The UK Centre for Materials Education (UKCME) is one of 24 Subject Centres which form part of the Higher Education Academy providing disciplinebased support to universities and communities of practitioners across the UK.
Since 2001 all new lecturers to UK higher education are required to undertake institutionalled training to prepare them for their teaching (DfES 2003). In 2005 the Higher Education Academy (HEA) undertook a national evaluation of such mandatory training courses that had been accredited. This was followed a year later by a national survey carried out by UKCME which focused on new lecturers in the Materials discipline. An analysis of these findings will be presented in this paper. The UKCME research has promoted an understanding of the challenges faced by new lecturers and their perceptions relating to mandatory training. It has also provided an insight into the role played by the Department in terms of support and guidance and affirmed the value placed by new lecturers on the subjectspecific training provided annually by UKCME.
The paper argues that in its current form central provision is failing to take account of the demands currently being made on Materials lecturers and failing to address their daytoday needs. In light of this the paper contends that while the main responsibility for induction and training in teaching and learning must continue to lie with central provision acknowledgement should be made of the role played by the Department and greater responsibility should be given to UKCME (as the appropriate national HEA Subject Centre) for those parts of training applicable to the Materials discipline.
