Teaching with University Collections

We work closely with academic staff to deliver hands-on, object-based teaching using original materials from the University’s archives, rare books, photographic, and museum collections.

• What we will do
• How this will be delivered

What we will do:

• We will support the design and delivery of teaching sessions that align with learning outcomes and course content.
• Our team will provide expert advice on selecting appropriate materials and offer tailored support or leadership for sessions as needed.
• Most sessions will be delivered in the New Park Seminar Room at Martyrs Kirk, but where original materials are not required, we will deliver sessions in the usual teaching space.
• We will assess each request based on staffing capacity, workload models, and the care needs of the collections.
• Where additional resources are required, we will work with Schools to agree on the most suitable option, which may include associated costs.

How this will be delivered:

We will accept teaching requests submitted to unicolls@st-andrews.ac.uk by: 

• Week 15 of Semester 2 for Semester 1 teaching
• Week 6 of Semester 1 for Semester 2 teaching.

We will ask Schools to confirm proposed teaching dates and a list of required materials by: 

• July (aligned with the reading list deadline) for Semester 1
• November for Semester 2.

We will deliver sessions involving original collection materials in the New Park Seminar Room, Monday to Friday, 10am–4pm. Where original items are not needed, we will deliver sessions in the School’s usual teaching space. We will review all requests in the context of: 

• staffing capacity
• agreed workload models
• Collections care considerations
• room availability.

If we are not delivering the session directly: 

• For fragile materials, large volumes, or large classes, we will ask Schools to provide Teaching Assistants (School-funded).
• For robust materials and smaller, manageable classes, we can work with academic colleagues who want to become Honorary Curatorial Fellows.
• If neither of these is possible, we may provide support for one class or less than 15% of contact hours, subject to approval from the Assistant Director, University Collections and Museums.

We will require that teaching support beyond these limits is either:

• formally recorded in C-View and included in the FTE dashboard, or
• supported by Teaching Assistants or Honorary Curatorial Fellows, as appropriate.