What is the
Technician Commitment?
The Technician Commitment is a sector wide initiative that aims to ensure visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for all technicians working in higher education and research, across all disciplines. UCA was the first creative arts university to become a signatory of the Technician Commitment.
At UCA, we have a community of over one hundred technical specialists who play a significant role in supporting teaching, learning and research within our creative education and research activities. Our technicians are active practitioners and experts in their field and use their specialist skills and knowledge to lead the way in the development and delivery of practice-based teaching, supporting and enhancing creative education.
Technical staff are a highly regarded group within the University and we are committed to addressing the themes within the Technician Commitment to ensure that their specialist technical skills and creative practices are professionally recognised, developed and sustained. Through an ongoing commitment, we aim to create career pathways for technical roles that nurture the development and enhancement of technical specialisms and provide an attractive and viable career route for technical staff.
Technician Commitment Assessment (2021-2024)
UCA’s 2021-2024 submission to the Technician Commitment was assessed as delivering ‘sector leading activity’ (TC, 2024). We won the ‘best technical team in UK HE' at the Higher Education Technicians Summit (2021), and contribute to, and influence research and policy at a national level, through our active involvement in the Research England funded TALENT Commission and Institute for Technical Skills and Strategy. Feedback acknowledged ‘Whilst a very significant body of work across the sector has focussed on the contribution that technicians make to research, and formal recognition for this, the University for the Creative Arts should be applauded for extending this principle to technicians working in roles aligned to teaching, and this should be used as an example of best practice for the sector.’ (TC, 2024)*.
Technician Commitment Action Plan (2024-2027)
Building on this progress, to ensure that we continue to progress the main themes and continue to embed the Technician Commitment at UCA we have developed a 36-month action plan (2024-2027). To establish actions that were relevant and meaningful to the experience of technicians, the technician voice via our staff survey and working groups was intrinsic to the formulation and development of the plan. As we progress, consultation and involvement of technical staff will play an important role in leading the development and implementation of the Technician Commitment as we lead the sector in developing an understanding of the pedagogical contribution and value of technical staff.
Get involved
We are seeking Technician Champions to help lead and contribute to the continuing development of the Technician Commitment at UCA.
If you have any feedback regarding the action plan or would like to get involved, please contact sarah.stevens@uca.ac.uk to register your interest.
* TC (2024) Technician Commitment assessment outcome (09/10/2024).