THE University’s teaching and learning activities in 2000 have been set against the challenges of a global era in which educational institutions are operating across national boundaries, are embracing a wide range of rapidly-changing technologies, and are meeting the increasingly diverse learning needs and circumstances of students as they prepare for a role in the ‘knowledge society’.

High quality remains the pervading principle underpinning all our activities and in the area of teaching and learning the University’s approach is to combine the high-quality interactive learning environment of the campus with increased flexibility and innovation in access, content, delivery and assessment.

An important element of the University’s strategy for 1999 and 2000 has been to identify specific priorities for teaching and learning with the aim of building and investing in these areas over the medium term to achieve ‘international excellence’—the theme of the Operational Priorities Plan. Our priorities include the improvement of flexible teaching and learning; enhancing the teaching and research nexus; improving the environment for postgraduate study; improving the teaching and learning infrastructure; facilitating and encouraging collaboration; and the sustained attraction of the highest quality undergraduate and postgraduate students in Australia and overseas.

During this period many of the identified initiatives have been advanced and will be developed further in 2001 and beyond. For example:

• The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning was established in 2000 to provide a focal point for co-ordinating and expanding the broad range of teaching innovations and staff development activities currently directed towards providing the highest quality learning opportunities possible for students. The centre has established a University network (CATLysts) on flexible teaching and learning; manages the monthly publication Issues of Teaching and Learning; organises workshops and seminars with a national and international focus on the issues of flexible teaching and learning; and has allocated and administers grants totalling approximately $250,000 in 2000 alone.

• The Office of Teaching Infrastructure was established in 2000. In addition to overseeing the initial budget of approximately $1 million to facilitate a major upgrade of teaching facilities, part of its brief is to establish a policy for long-term planning and development of the teaching and learning infrastructure.

• The Teaching Internship Scheme has been continued and expanded in 2000, having been established in 1999 to help promising doctoral research students to develop teaching skills and to undertake a programme of professional development activities during the course of their PhD candidature. The scheme reflects our priority for supporting high-quality teaching and learning and, in particular, for fostering the nexus between teaching and research while enhancing the future employment prospects of the interns.

• Following several years’ planning the University has established the UWA Albany Centre, a remote centre of excellence for the delivery of high-quality undergraduate and postgraduate educational services to regional Western Australia and a facilitator of research opportunities and partnerships in the Great Southern Region of the State. The centre focuses on innovative, flexible and cost-effective delivery methods, using state-of-the-art technology combined with the University’s intellectual resources. Following its inaugural year in 1999 the centre’s teaching programme was expanded in 2000 from four to 16 undergraduate units plus the Master of Education Management. The first-year undergraduate units offered in Albany in 2000 may be applied to 20 different degree programmes in Arts, Agriculture, Science, Economics and Commerce. In 2001 the programme will be extended to include combined degrees with Education.