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Introduction
The purpose of the Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) initiative was to reward current excellent practice and to invest further in that practice to increase and deepen its impact across a wider teaching and learning community ([7] HEFCE, 2005, p. 1). Institutions were able to define the areas of excellence themselves by demonstrating proof of good teaching and learning through external recognition, quality ratings and previous awards and articulating a viable strategy to disseminate these wider. As the Research Assessment Exercise [now Research Excellence Framework (REF)] attracts considerable finance and kudos for higher education institutions (HEI) for research activity, the CETL initiative arose as a counterbalance to research funding as an alternative funding source to reward excellent teaching, thereby providing an incentive to invest in teaching and learning within HEIs and encouraging innovation by promoting CETLs as beacons of excellence to raise educational standards across the sector ([5] Gosling and Hannan, 2007). This article provides a case study experience from one particular CETL. Using models of change as offered by [9] Land (2001) it evaluates the experience of participating in a CETL and use of different change strategies by educational developers to influence the uptake and incorporation of work-based learning (WBL) into an HEI.
To set the scene an overview of the university approach to WBL is presented, together with the aims and objectives of the CETL, which is then evaluated in relation to the change strategies used and impact upon WBL uptake across the university.
The university WBL department had demonstrated a significant track record of excellence and achievement which included a Queens Anniversary Award in 1995 for "Excellence and Innovation" in pioneering WBL, and recognition by the [14] QAA (2003) for being innovative and academically rigorous in WBL (www.qaa.ac.uk/reviews/reports/institutional/middlesex/findings.asp, para 149). The CETL bid drew on the activity of the WBL department, which at the time was located at the time in the School of Lifelong Learning, combined with the WBL Unit within the School of Health and Social Sciences. The creation of a Centre for Excellence in WBL included both departments and aimed to extend its influence across the university as well as externally to other CETLs and HEIs. The prevalent type of WBL at the time...