Introduction

In 2003 the UK Higher Education Funding Council (HEFC) created 74 Centres for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETLs) through a detailed and competitive bid process. The successful CETL bids covered a wide range of educational activities throughout higher education in the UK.

Most CETLs are solo projects, though 19 are collaborative in nature. The largest of these is LearnHigher. The LearnHigher CETL is a collaborative project involving some 16 higher education institutions (HEIs), covering 19 learning areas in learning development in higher education (HE). It was originally conceived as a ‘one-stop shop’ for resources of excellence for practitioners and students involved with learner development in UK HE. The LearnHigher website (www.learnhigher.ac.uk) further defines its context and purpose (Glass, 2007a).

As the country's biggest collaborative HEFCE-funded Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, LearnHigher is a partnership of 16 universities and the Higher Education Academy. The CETL is committed to improving student learning through practice-led enquiry, building a research base to inform the effective use of learning development resources. LearnHigher is a network of expertise seeking to enhance professional practice and student learning, and build capacity both within the network and across the wider sector.

The LearnHigher partnership has a large and diverse amount of expertise. Each of the 16 partner institutions is engaged in enquiry-led practice which aims to build a sound evidence base in learning development across a broad spectrum of learning areas that underpin activity across all academic subjects.

Throughout the five-year programme LearnHigher will be undertaking a strategic approach to research, to build and disseminate a sound evidence base in learning development. Practitioners across the sector will be encouraged to share in, and contribute to current pedagogic understanding.

LearnHigher will also be a gateway to tried and tested resources in a broad range of learning areas. Each of our 16 partner institutions contributes researchdriven, peer reviewed and evaluated resources in 20 learning areas. ‘In conjunction with the Higher Education Academy, LearnHigher will create a portal service to provide resources and materials to the whole of the sector. Staff in both support roles and teaching roles will be able to use these resources in their course delivery and, in time, resources will be available for students to support their studies’ (www.learnhigher.ac.uk/).