Proving the pudding: optimising the structure of academic development.

This paper questions the value of the current trend towards mandating formal teaching accreditation in higher education and argues that the 'just-in-time' nature of short training programmes coupled with on-going occasional mentoring is likely to result in more productive professional development for academic teachers. Specifically, the paper considers the increasing use of the graduate certificate as a means to improve practice despite the sparseness and contradictory nature of evidential data (as opposed to surveys of perceptions) supporting their efficacy as instruments of professional development. Finally the paper presents a case for less formal training and development, arguing that because universities have changed substantially in response to demands for greater access in terms of a much wider intake; in response to the increasing managerial emphasis on productivity and in response to the maelstrom of unmediated communication that has characterised the early part of the twenty-first century, a more pragmatic approach to academic development is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]