Australasian1academic developers: Entry into the profession and our own professional development

In academic/educational/teaching development circles, at least in the United Kingdom, North America and Australasia, there is increasing debate as to the credibility of professionals in the field. Coinciding with the recent discussions about the value and need to accredit university teachers and teaching, questions are being asked about the need to accredit academic developers. Academic developers themselves are asking questions such as: do we need to have studied specific disciplines?; do we need to be accredited by a national or an international body?; and in what ongoing professional development do we need to engage in order to keep up to date? To begin to collect background data relevant to these issues, I surveyed 71 developers from a wide range of Australasian institutions. From that sample I interviewed 22 developers. In this paper I report on issues of career paths, qualifications and the professional development of academic developers. 1 ‘Australasia . . . Australia, New Zealand and neig...