HEFCE publish Oakleigh's report on the Higher Education Academy

Oakleigh's report on the High Education Academy has now been published by HEFCE and is available to download from the latter's site at:

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/rdreports/2008/rd02_08/

The review was led by Andy Shenstone, Oakleigh's Director of Education Services. Its purpose was to examine the impact of the Academy on learning and teaching and to inform its future development.

The research found that the Academy had achieved positive impact across a number of its key work strands, including:

discipline-based support offered through the subject network
national accreditation scheme for development of new and experienced staff
emerging value of the approach to evidence-based research
the 'Change Academy' programme.

The research also found a number of areas requiring further development:

strategic focus - including more effective listening
approach to relationship management needs to be a core competence
business strategy that is more sophisticated, and is evaluated
engagement with individuals and further development of the subject network.

The Academy is using the evaluation findings to inform its strategy and plans going forward. It will report to the funding bodies how it has taken account of the issues raised in the report.