The Quality Manual of the University of Nottingham underlines that staff development is likely to be most effective when staff members take responsibility for their own development. To do so, members can rely on the University, on the literature on training, and, last but not least, on colleagues. SEDU provides new lecturers with the opportunity to fulfill their potential. The literature emphasizes the fact that teachers become experimenters, in the sense that they try new approaches of teaching, and devise methods to assess their own performances. The main focus of such literature is on teacher-student relations.

What can we learn from the perspectives of new lecturers themselves? What do new lecturers expect of their teaching role, which official and especially informal support can they rely on in their schools and university, and which are effective survival strategies? These are important questions for both scholars and policy-makers. To answer such questions is to help us better understand the kinds of resources and advice that new lecturers find useful. This project offers advice from an insider's perspective.

Thirty seven intensive semi-structured interviews were conducted with newly appointed lecturers (appointed within the last four years) in a range of discipline areas. These interviews were divided in three main parts: first, the structural support provided by schools and university; second, adaptive strategies adopted by new lecturers; and third, suggestions given by lecturers with teaching experience.

This project shows that: 1) informal mentoring by both official mentors and close colleagues is the major source of support for new lecturers; 2) the biggest challenge for new lecturers is to organize their teaching, research and administrative responsibilities; and 3) enthusiasm and ability to adapt teaching methods are key to a successful first year of teaching.

Colleagues are especially important as they offer advice on organization of the work-life and admin/teaching/research balance. They also give unusual ideas on methods of teaching and on lecturers' rights towards students. They insist on the importance of being confident and not over-prepared, innovative and passionate in order to constantly capture students' imagination. This advice complements the literature which emphasizes the necessity to respect student learning through discussion and appropriate assessment, to be independent, and to have clear goals.

This project gives practical examples of successful practice and solutions adopted by new lecturers. It demonstrates that the most productive area for support seems to be informal discussions with close colleagues who have had a long term experience of the system. The sociological environment lecturers create with their peers is as important as teacher-student relations. Mentors and existing members of staff should be made aware of the primary and positive role they play in the career of new lecturers, and encouraged to ‘invest’ time in new colleagues. More interviews could be conducted with ‘older’ staff members in order to confirm our findings and bring in more advice to new lecturers. These guidelines would be a useful resource for all new lecturers and current members of staff.