The past decade has seen increased attention to methods of teaching and learning, and the 1997 Dearing Report, Higher Education in the Learning Society, has further emphasised the need for innovative responses to the challenges facing higher education. The agenda for these changes has included increased student numbers and diversity, the promotion of lifelong learning and a learning society, and satisfying the requirements of employment and citizenship. The project aims to examine and interpret the innovative responses of higher education in the recent period to these pressures and opportunities. It will seek to analyse the sources, nature and implementation of recent and current innovations, the obstacles and life histories. It will explore the meanings attached to innovation as process and product. It will therefore attempt to identify:

Although curriculum change, modularisation, assessment methods, access and emphases on skills and learning outcomes, for example, relate to teaching and learning, these will be contingent rather than central features of the project. The focus will be on those innovations that seek to shape the learning interface of students with teachers, one another, the technologies and materials. These include such processes as problem based learning, open learning, independent learning, distance learning and computer based or supported learning.