Welcome
The Centre for Excellence in Preparing for Academic Practice is one of the Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs) funded by HEFCE. The Centre started work in September 2005 and will run for five years. It is hosted by the Oxford Learning Institute and is linked closely with the Institute’s strategy and objectives.
The Centre's work has focused on supporting postgraduate research students and postdoctoral researchers who wish to develop academic careers. It has done so by seeking to define and explain the essential elements of Academic Practice, and the various forms that academic activities may take. The Centre has conducted and promoted research into this subject area, and has established a Network, comprising seven research-intensive UK universities, to channel research efforts and to assist with the dissemination of findings.
Within the University of Oxford, the Centre has played a significant role in channelling HEFCE funds to support programmes to help postgraduate research students and contract research staff who wish to teach. These schemes have been integrated at Divisional and Departmental level with other skills development activities, to help to give future academic practitioners a broad foundation from which to launch their careers.
The CETL has recently organised a third conference, from 13 to 15 December 2009, entitled: "Beyond teaching and learning: inclusive understandings of Academic Practice".
HEFCE has conducted a Mid-Term Evaluation of the CETL programme. A condensed version of the Centre's role to date in addressing issues related to Academic Practice is available. The Centre's Final Evaluation document is currently being developed.
The research projects funded by the Centre have been collated and reconstructed to provide a set of resources for doctoral students, which is now available at www.apprise.ox.ac.uk.
Elsewhere on this website, you can read the Centre’s evolving ideas on understanding Academic Practice, and add your own thoughts and comments.
Use the following link for information on skills, courses and other activities relating to Academic Practice at the University of Oxford and elsewhere. These activities include a series of events run jointly with Higher Education Academy Subject Centres, which focus on academic careers in particular disciplinary areas.
Follow this link for details of research relating to Academic Practice, carried out both by the Centre and by other researchers.