You know you’re in for a shock when you’re teaching in an unfamiliar environment

Students may be able to return to their classrooms after a year in a new classroom, but they will have to re-learn the skills they have mastered in their own classrooms, according to new research.

Resumes and workbooks are now required in most universities in England and Wales to be available to students after they graduate, and teachers are required to ensure they are available for interviews.

The changes were announced last week, after the government launched a consultation on a review of the law, which is expected to be published in March 2019.

The new requirements mean the number of available job opportunities will be limited to 10 per cent of the workforce at the start of each academic year, with the proportion of staff who are in a role similar to that in the old system set to be the same.

They will be replaced by a standardised approach, and the introduction of “revised” or “customised” resume formats, said the Department for Education, Skills and Universities.

This means the same resume must be used for both the teaching and professional courses, and it will be the case for a year after graduation, instead of after.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said there are currently more than 1.4 million new jobs across the country, with nearly one million jobs in teaching and more than 3.5 million in research and development. 

The research suggests that if new graduates are able to start teaching in the same classroom for three months, they can gain a degree in just three years.

The number of vacancies across the UK, including universities, has fallen by 15 per cent since the beginning of this year, but there are still more than 300,000 vacancies, said John Hoyle, the chief executive of the Association of Universities and Colleges English Teachers’ (AUET).

There are around 10,000 full-time vacancies in the teaching profession, according the National Union of Teachers.

 The University of London’s head of research said the new law was “an enormous relief” to teachers.

“This is fantastic news for those of us teaching in a very challenging and complex environment,” said Professor John Clark, from the Department of Psychology.

“In our experience, many teaching students will be looking for the same kind of jobs at the end of their degree, so this is a great step forward.” 

The new legislation, which has been published in the Times Higher Education Supplement, will see all teaching jobs in England fall from 15 per 10,700 to 9 per 10 and the number required to teach full-day courses from 7 per 10 to 5 per 10.

The minimum requirements will remain the same for all teaching courses, including the University of Cambridge’s degree-level courses.

Students will also need to have completed a minimum of eight years of university teaching before they are eligible for full-timing teaching, but the number will be lowered to 6.5 per 10 of the total teaching workforce, from 7.5.

The university will be able publish a list of courses for which the minimum required number of teaching years has been reduced, which will also include the University College London, the London School of Economics and the London College of Communication.

The research comes as universities in London and Cambridge are under increasing pressure to recruit and retain top talent. 

In September, Universities UK called for a minimum number of full-year teaching qualifications to be recognised in order to boost recruitment.

“There is a shortage of people in teaching now,” said Andrew Tully, the organisation’s director of research.

“The Government’s new proposals will provide an incentive for universities to hire more and more graduates, which could see more students and teachers gain qualifications in the UK over the next decade.”

Professor Hoyle said that a university should be “on the forefront of the next generation of creative thinkers” and said the current system was “not working”.

“A lot of people are looking at university teaching as an alternative to university, but it’s not, because it’s only the first year,” he said.

Last year, the Government announced that universities would be required to publish job vacancy rates and full-term teaching statistics for the first time.