Exploring the parallel universes of staff and student transitions in higher education

Following the publication of the Browne Review (2010), Higher Education (HE) in
England is on the edge, being plunged once more into a significant state of transition.
From 2012, the teaching grant paid to publically-funded universities will be cut and a
tripling of tuition fees permitted. The implications of these changes are highly significant
for new academic staff and students. Much has been written about student transitions
into HE but far less is known about the transitional experiences of academic staff who
themselves support transitional students. As changes impact, new academic
appointments are increasingly drawn from a widening variety of employment
backgrounds, with many staff working in HE for the first time. The University of
Bedfordshire runs a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PgCAP) for staff new
to HE. In undertaking this programme, new staff also take on the additional persona of
first-year student. Feedback from the PgCAP therefore informs an understanding of the
challenges facing new staff and new students. We also acknowledge a further group of
'new' staff required to move into radically new types of work-roles and who also
transition into an alien world. Situated within the context of government and institutional
imperatives, this paper explores the differing transitional experiences of academic staff
entering a university and draws parallels with institutional approaches employed to
support first-year students. An holistic model depicting the parallel universes of these
staff and student transitions is presented