The TLC reinforcing the competence of higher education teachers

In February this year, I took my seat as member of the European University Association (EUA) Learning & Teaching Steering Committee (LTSC). The EUA comprises more than 800 universities in 48 European countries and it has a major impact on European higher education institute policies. LTSC focuses on matters of learning and teaching and their concrete promotion at the member universities. Every year, we organise a forum for discussing current pedagogical issues and sharing good practices. The next forum will be held as a remote conference in February 2021, on the theme ‘Embedding and facilitating sustainability’. Submissions for conference papers are currently open, and I’m hoping for active participation from the university.

Working in an international group has increased my understanding of the common challenges of European higher education as well as the diversity of the university field. In 2018, the EUA published a policy paper called ‘Learning and Teaching in Europe’s Universities’. The increased demand for higher education and its internationalisation both in Europe and elsewhere in the world has led to a more diverse community of students. As a consequence of this, universities are paying even more attention to teaching practices that promote the students’ learning while also ensuring a positive student experience. Due to internationalisation, digitalisation and change in the labour market, universities have started to introduce learning and teaching strategies as well as development programmes for their staff and have established learning centres.

The development of Finnish higher education follows international trends. The objective of higher education’s vision 2030 is to increase the proportion of the population with higher education to 50% by 2030. This requires both a better completion rate in education and increasing the number of available starting places. The number of students at Tampere University will increase by more than 700 students as a result of the added starting places in 2020–2022. These added places are allocated to education provided in Finnish, but international degree education should also be developed at the same time. As a result of population development trends, the size of the age group of people applying for higher education institutes will decrease significantly from 2030. This will lead to increasing competition for students and a growing number of foreign students.

Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC) of the Tampere higher education community is a network that brings together pedagogical expertise and services offered to teachers. It offers the teachers of the entire higher education community training and pedagogical support at every step of their career. TLC has been recorded in the community’s strategic goals as an operational model supporting the teaching staff’s pedagogical renewal. Its European examples include Oxford University’s Centre for Teaching and Learning and Edinburgh University’s Teaching Matters. The objective is to create a network that brings together pedagogical development and competence for the teaching staff and to increase their sense of community and networking opportunities.

As the student base applying for higher education becomes more diverse and digital teaching more common, there will be more and more expectations placed on the teachers’ expertise. I hope that the teaching staff will welcome the services and support offered by TLC and that they will join us in improving its content and functions further. There is a special need for them now, due to the new arrangements caused by the pandemic. The website is public, and I hope that higher education teachers elsewhere in Finland will also discover it, followed by teachers all around the world when the website is published in English.

Marja Sutela

Vice President, Tampere University