Dedicated to the technical talent underpinning research, teaching and innovation within universities and research institutes, this book highlights the vital contributions of technicians to the higher education and research sector. Exploring the varied definitions of the technical role and recent developments in the professional landscape, this book brings together a diverse set of contributors who each discuss their unique, first-hand and authentic perspectives on this crucial community. Initial chapters cover the varied definitions of the technical role, explore the current demographics of this workforce and provide a history of the origins of the profession. The book continues to explore broad themes that are key components of the roles of the modern-day technician including teaching, research, leading core facilities, health and safety, procurement, environmental sustainability and research culture. It concludes by looking to the future and explores recent developments in the landscape for the technical community and the work underway to engage the public with technical roles and careers, challenging perceptions and stereotypes about the roles of technicians. Written in an accessible style, this essential volume shines a light on this understudied group to raise the profile of technical careers, roles and contributions, and to ensure sector-wide insights into this invisible workforce. It is a must-read for aspiring and current technicians across all disciplines, education and research leaders, managers and policymakers.

Dedicated to the technical talent underpinning research, teaching and innovation within universities and research institutes, this book highlights the vital contributions of technicians to the higher education and research sector. Exploring the varied definitions of the technical role and recent developments in the professional landscape, this book brings together a diverse set of contributors who each discuss their unique, first-hand and authentic perspectives on this crucial community. Initial chapters cover the varied definitions of the technical role, exploring the current demographics of this workforce, and provide a history of the origins of the profession. The book continues to explore broad themes that are key components of the roles of the modern-day technician including teaching, research, leading core facilities, health and safety, procurement, environmental sustainability and research culture. It concludes by looking to the future and explores recent developments in the landscape for the technical community and the work underway to engage the public with technical roles and careers, challenging perceptions and stereotypes on the roles of technicians. Written in an accessible style, this essential volume shines a light on this understudied group to raise the profile of technical careers, roles and contributions, and to ensure sector wide insights into this invisible workforce. It is a must-read for aspiring and current technicians across all disciplines, education and research leaders, managers and policymakers.

This book provides a summary of the main obstacles for creating and maintaining high standards of health and safety in higher education research institutions and how to tackle them effectively. Aimed at organisations worldwide who conduct scientific and engineering research with transient workers and students.

The vitality of the innovation economy in the United States depends on the availability of a highly educated technical workforce. A key component of this workforce consists of engineers, engineering technicians, and engineering technologists. However, unlike the much better-known field of engineering, engineering technology (ET) is unfamiliar to most Americans and goes unmentioned in most policy discussions about the US technical workforce. Engineering Technology Education in the United States seeks to shed light on the status, role, and needs of ET education in the United States.

Between Craft and Science brings together leading scholars from sociology, anthropology, industrial relations, management, and engineering to consider issues surrounding technical work, the most rapidly expanding sector of the labor force. Part craft and part science, part blue-collar and part white-collar, technical work demands skill and knowledge but is rarely rewarded with commensurate status or salary.The book first considers the anomalous nature of technical work and the difficulty of locating it in any conventional theoretical framework. Only an ethnographic approach, studying the actual doing of the work, will make sense of the subject, the authors conclude. The studies that follow report daily practice filled with disjunctures and ironies that mirror the ambiguities of technical work's place in the larger culture. On the basis of those studies, the authors probe questions of policy, management, and education.Between Craft and Science considers the cultural difficulties in understanding technical work and advances coherent, practice-oriented insights into this anomalous phenomenon.

The project on benchmarking higher education system performance provides a comprehensive and empirically rich review of the higher education landscape across OECD countries, taking stock of how well they are performing in meeting their education, research and engagement responsibilities.

Ultimately, the authors make a compelling case not only for this turn to learning but for creating new pathways for nonfaculty learning careers, understanding the limits of professional organizations and social media, and the need to establish this new interdisciplinary field of learning innovation.

The fed. gov't. has spent billions of dollars on educ. programs in the science, tech., engin., & math (STEM) fields for many years. However, concerns have been raised about the nation's ability to maintain its global technological competitive advantage in the future. This report presents info. on: the number of fed. prog. funded in FY 2004 that were designed to increase the number of students & graduates pursuing STEM degrees & occupations or improve educ. progress in STEM fields, & what agencies report about their effectiveness; how the number, percentages, & character. of students, grad., & employees in STEM fields have changed over the years'; & factors cited as affecting students' decisions about pursing STEM degrees. Charts & tables.