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Report of the General Board on the establishment of a Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies

The GENERAL BOARD beg leave to report to the University as follows:

1. The Council and the General Board have, in recent years, given consideration to the implications for the University of trends such as globalization and the use of new information and communication technologies in the provision of higher education. As stated in the Annual Report of the Council for 1997-98 (Reporter, 1998-99, Special No. 8), the Council and the General Board agreed to explore the possibilities for Cambridge of the concept of a 'virtual university' using the World Wide Web, and through their Planning and Resources Committee they have also been considering how these technologies could be used to enhance and extend existing teaching and learning resources within the University. As a result of these considerations, they agreed to provide funding of £433,000 a year, for an initial period of three years, from the Strategic Planning Reserve Fund, for a centre (Reporter, 1999-2000, p. 491) which would assist Departments and Faculties in understanding how existing educational technologies could be deployed, and, more importantly, new systems and applications developed.

2. The General Board now propose the establishment of a Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET) which will accomplish this goal. CARET will be a research and development group, in which the focus will be on applied research to develop, implement, and evaluate new technologies in education. It will focus on deliverable projects which will be appropriately evaluated so as to reveal the generic principles on which they are based, with the intention that these could influence the design of other systems. The principles would relate to both technological and pedagogical issues.

3. CARET would provide the core facilities for experts in information technology, education, design, and media communications to work with academic staff from existing Faculties and Departments within the University, and from Colleges, many of whom have already been successful in this area on their own account. (The recent success of the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy in gaining funds from the HEFCE's Fund for the Development of Learning and Teaching is an example of this.) The Centre will form part of the underpinning local infrastructure for any Cambridge response to the HEFCE e-University project, and it already has a role within the Board's Learning and Teaching Strategy (Reporter, p. 552). It will also play a vital role in delivering parts of the programmes of the Cambridge-MIT Institute (Reporter, p. 491), and will provide a focus for any future collaborations the University may have with other bodies and agencies who are exploiting these technologies in a similar fashion. It is envisaged that, on start-up, the following staff would be required:

(i) two programmers to develop generic software;
(ii) a training officer to run courses and produce course material on educational technologies;
(iii) an administrator for the Centre;
(iv) a computer officer to offer technical support.

The funding for these positions would be part of the funding referred to in paragraph 1. In addition, it is proposed that a University office of Director as the academic and administrative head of the Centre be established, and that an Advisory Committee be established to advise the Director on lines of applied research in educational technologies and their financial implications.

4. For academic staff from individual Faculties, Departments, and Colleges who wish to develop novel technology-based teaching resources, CARET will provide assistance to help define the scope of any project and the resources that will be needed both from CARET and the individual or group for the project to succeed. The Advisory Committee will guide the selection of projects to be housed in the Centre. Support will be provided for applications for research funds to support projects, and, where appropriate, projects will be provided with space and core resources to support the research and development.

5. CARET will act as a central unit for Research and Development for academic staff involved in such a project during its development phase, but the individual project will remain the 'property' of the originating institution, and will return to it when completed. The Centre will provide the necessary creative environment with a range of in-house core resources to support the development, testing, and evaluation of the specific projects. Where publications or software arise directly from a project, these will be declarable on the Research Assessment Exercise returns of the originating institution, and will be seen as supporting its teaching in the context of assessments by the Quality Assessment Agency (QAA). The General Board will ensure that appropriate mechanisms are put in place for handling the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) generated from these joint projects to ensure that the IPR is protected and realized, and that appropriate return is made to all the participants, including the University.

6. In order to fulfil its role in respect of all Faculties and Departments, CARET should, in the long term, be independent of any one such Department or Faculty so that it is seen to be impartial. Although it is proposed in paragraph 7 that initially CARET should build on existing expertise in the School of Clinical Medicine, once it is fully established it should be distinct from existing groups so that those groups remain free to meet the needs of their Faculty or Department. The separate and independent existence of both CARET and the existing groups will assure those Departments and Faculties without their own established facilities that CARET is a central resource to help develop their needs. Faculties and Departments will retain the option of addressing their own needs themselves when they have acquired the necessary experience and expertise to do so. The teaching and research remit of CARET means that it could not be part of the unified administrative service, nor would it fit into any other existing institution.

7. In considering the establishment of CARET, the General Board have concluded that, although CARET will be a separate and independent institution, the University's interests will be best served at this early stage by building on the existing expertise of the Clinical and Biomedical Computing Unit (CBCU) of the School of Clinical Medicine. This unit has been in operation for three years, and has successfully developed a modus operandi akin to that which is envisaged for CARET. It is therefore proposed that, as a prototype of how each individual institution might be represented within CARET, the Clinical and Biomedical Computing Unit be partly co-located within CARET. This will allow others within the University to learn from the existing expertise in CBCU and provide a working model for other projects in the future. CARET will be located on a central site so that this expertise can be shared and so as to permit easy access to it by as many academic staff as possible. The CBCU will continue to have an independent presence in its current location at Addenbrooke's Hospital.

8. The General Board have agreed that the operation of CARET should be reviewed after two years.

9. The General Board accordingly recommend:

That a Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies be established, with immediate effect, and governed by the regulations set out in the Annex to this Report.

24 May 2000

ALEC N. BROERS, Vice-Chancellor
P. J. BAYLEY
KEITH GLOVER
MALCOLM GRANT
BRIAN F. G. JOHNSON
JOHN A. LEAKE
PETER LIPTON
N. J. MACKINTOSH
ADRIAN POOLE
KATE PRETTY
M. SCHOFIELD

ANNEX

Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies

1. The Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies shall be an institution independent of any Faculty but under the supervision of the General Board.

2. There shall be an Advisory Committee for the Centre which shall consist of:

(a) the Vice-Chancellor (or a duly appointed deputy), who shall be Chairman;
(b) the Director of the Centre ex officio;
(c) three persons appointed by the General Board, of whom one shall be appointed by the General Board after consultation with the Senior Tutors' Committee;
(d) one person appointed by the General Board after consultation with the Press Syndicate;
(e) one person appointed by the General Board after consultation with the Local Examinations Syndicate;
(f) the Director of the University Computing Service (or a deputy);
(g) four persons who are not resident members of the University appointed by the General Board to represent academic interests and educational activities associated with Government, industry, and commerce;
(h) not more than two persons co-opted by the Committee, provided that it shall not be obligatory for the Committee to co-opt any person or persons.

Members in classes (c)-(g) shall be appointed in the Michaelmas Term to serve for two years from 1 January next following their appointment. Members in class (h) shall serve for one year from 1 January next following their co-optation.

3. The Committee shall elect a Secretary each year.

4. No business shall be transacted at any meeting of the Committee unless six members at least are present.

5. The Committee shall meet at least once in each term provided that the Chairman, in consultation with the Director of the Centre, may cancel a particular meeting if there is insufficient business to be transacted.

6. Subject to the powers of the Council and the General Board, the duties of the Committee shall be as follows:

(a) to advise the Director on lines of applied research in educational technologies and their financial implications;
(b) to assist the Director in the development of co-operation with outside bodies in the encouragement of applied research in educational technologies;
(c) to receive reports of the Centre's research;
(d) to receive annual management accounts.

Director of the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies

1. There shall be a University office of Director of the Centre, which shall be held on such terms and conditions as the General Board may from time to time determine.

2. Appointments and reappointments to the office of Director shall be made by the General Board. Appointments and reappointments shall be for periods not exceeding five years at a time, as the General Board shall determine on each occasion. The maximum tenure of the Directorship shall be fifteen years, provided that in exceptional circumstances the General Board may approve an extension of tenure for a further period or periods.

3. The Director shall be the administrative Head of the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies, and shall carry out the duties assigned to a Head of a Department in Statute C, V, 3. He or she shall seek to facilitate the conduct of applied research in educational technologies and shall make an annual report on the work of the Centre to the General Board.


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Cambridge University Reporter, 14 June 2000
Copyright © 2000 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.