Dean of Education – Further Details.

A: The Advert.

The University of Buckingham

Dean of Education

Required for Easter, 2014 or as soon as possible thereafter

Salary in excess of £70,000 per annum

The University of Buckingham was the UK’s first independent university. Its Department of Education was founded in 2003 by Sir Chris Woodhead and Professor Anthony O’Hear, and it has rapidly established itself as a major force in teacher and head teacher training. It currently has nearly 400 students on its various PGCE courses and over 120 on its leadership courses. On a recent visit, the Secretary of State for Education pronounced it “an outstanding faculty.”

We are looking for someone who will further enhance the department’s reputation. The successful candidate will be a rare beast - someone who:

  • is demonstrably committed to the practice of teaching but who has the entrepreneurial skills to continue the department’s remarkable growth at home and abroad;
  • has vision for the future but strong traditionalist sympathies (this advert will not appear in The Education Guardian);
  • is comfortable dealing with both the state and the independent sectors;
  • is recognisable as a principled human being rather than a cv-in-motion but who is nonetheless ambitious and decently competitive.

For further information and details of how to apply, please visit our website or contact Mrs Vicky Fraser, HR Assistant on

Tel: +44 (0)1280 820280, Email:

Informal enquiries may be made to Mr Peter Ireland, Dean of Education, on Tel: +44 (0)1280 820219, Email:

The closing date for applications is 5.00pm on Friday 18th October 2013.

We anticipate that interviews will be held week commencing Monday, 11th November, 2013.

B: The Context.

This is an exciting time for the department. It has established itself as the most significant trainer of teachers and teachers’ leaders within the independent sector. (Our MEd in Educational Leadership, for example, is the only such course formally endorsed and recommended by HMC, GSA and IAPS.) It now also has a growing impact within the maintained sector. (The new School Direct route to teacher training was based upon the UoB PGCE; the 8 new TS standards also follow UoB practice; the number of trainees we attract from the state sector grows annually.) We have trainees in every continent bar Australasia and Antarctica; we run courses in Mexico and Cyprus; we regularly receive requests to set up new courses overseas.

The challenge we now face is to change from being a cottage industry run largely by part-timers to becoming a major international presence in teacher education. A decade ago we had 12 trainees; 5 years ago, we had fewer than 100 trainees and no full-time staff; now we have a £2 million turnover and rapid expansion. We need, however, to make this change without damaging the human and educational values that have brought us our success.

C: Our Courses.

All our courses involve school-based distance learning. Typically they feature 9 residential days in Buckingham, together with tutor visits and on-line support. A consequence of this is that we employ almost 100 part-time tutors.

In order of birth, our courses are as follows: Independent PGCE; PGCE with TS (Secondary); PGCE with TS (Primary); PGCE QTS Conversion; MEd in Educational Leadership; Independent PGCE (Mexico); PGCE (School Direct); Certificate in Middle Leadership.

D: The Department.

The present Dean is Peter Ireland, he is an ex-comprehensive school headmaster who was described in The Sunday Times as “the model headteacher.” He is stepping down from the role to concentrate on leading our rapidly expanding Leadership programme.

Dr Hazel Agnew is retiring next summer. She is currently Director of our PGCE programme and has played the dominant role in its recent success.

Bob Green is the former head of an outstanding primary school and a man who is widely experienced in primary education and teacher training.

Professor Anthony O’Hear is Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, Editor of the journal Philosophy and a long-standing government adviser on education.

Nikki Mugford is the Education Department Office Manager. She’s committed, super-efficient, extremely knowledgeable about teacher educational matters, and is very ably assisted by two kindred spirits – Sally Elvin and Susannah Cox. Its admin staff are one of the department’s greatest (and most likeable) strengths.

E: The Post.

The new Dean will take overall charge of the department and be a significant presence in the university. There is a strong hands-on dimension to the role: he/she will run the PGCE programmes, organize and teach on the residentials, manage tutors and mentors, visit schools, interview students, mark essays, do a limited amount of tutoring of students. There is also, however, an increasing need for entrepreneurial skill and energy within the department. The successful candidate will need to chart and manage the department’s future growth – at home and abroad. Since this seems a significant workload, one of the new Dean’s first tasks will be to appoint a new, full-time Assistant Director of PGCE to share the burden.

F: Departmental Philosophy.

We’re not looking to appoint a Chris Woodhead clone. The department does, however, have a distinctive, conservative philosophy that might even be regarded as a unique selling point. Everyone working here is, in some sense, a liberal educationalist. The appellation is, of course, a slippery one: a bien-pensant Hampstead liberal would feel as out of place here as a proselytizing Marxist. So, to illustrate… Anthony O’Hear is a classical liberal stressing the importance of induction into “the best that has been thought and written”; Peter Ireland shares his antipathy to relativism but is vaguely Popperian: his liberalism centres on the importance of following the argument where it leads. All of us, however, share a respect for tradition and for the free exercise of rational thought and expression, and a contempt for political correctness. Equally importantly, we are all committed to an apprenticeship model of teacher training. Teachers certainly need to have something of value to teach, and they need some theoretical knowledge about the nature of learning, but they also need to be skilled in the supremely practical matter of getting young people to learn: and the craft of the classroom is most effectively learnt on the job, in the company of more experienced fellow-professionals.

G: The University

The University of Buckingham is the UK’s only independent Chartered University and provides undergraduate and postgraduate courses for full time and part time students, and supports an independent and vigorous research agenda. Founded in 1976, the University received its Royal Charter in March 1983 and awarded its first degrees in February 1984.

The University offers an attractive and stimulating environment in which to work. Buckingham is a small institution (around 1,500 students). At undergraduate level, our key strengths lie in Law and Business. A unique feature of the University is the two-year degree. We teach for four terms a year, with students joining the University in January or July. Obtaining a degree in two years is cited by many students as being the main reason for coming to Buckingham. (The Education Department, by contrast, is, of necessity, tied to the traditional 3-term model of its school customers.) The university prides itself on having one of the best staff-student ratios in British Higher Education. We employ over 300 permanent staff, as well as visiting lecturers. The University’s independence of government funding means that we are not forced to abandon effective traditional methods of teaching for financial reasons.

The University occupies two sites set in attractive surroundings, within easy reach of the historic and picturesque conservation town centre of Buckingham. The campus is not far from the M1 and M40 Motorways and there is a regular coach service direct to Oxford and Cambridge. The Euston-Birmingham main line runs through Milton Keynes, which is about 12 miles away.

H: Applications

Applications should be made via our online application portal, which can be found at During the application process you will have the opportunity to upload the following documents:

  • A covering letter giving a statement of not more than 2 sides of A4, setting out how you feel you meet the requirements of the role as set out above.
  • An up to date Curriculum Vitae.

Referees: Of the referees, at least one must be from your current or most recent employer and should be able to comment on your work.

The University will assume that it is free to approach referees unless specifically informed otherwise. The University will normally contact referees for all short-listed applicants prior to interview. Candidates who wish a referee to be approached only when they give their specific permission are asked to state this requirement clearly alongside the name(s) of the referee(s)

Interviews for the shortlisted candidates will be as informal as we can make them. We’ll wish to involve you in a conversation/discussion rather than rehearse prepared questions and answers.

Thank you for taking the trouble to consider the post.