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An Pounds 11 million learning and teaching research programme is being mounted by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Director Charles Desforges of Exeter University said that a large-scale consultation exercise would determine research priorities among academics and practitioners before the bulk of the funding was distributed.

There have already been 100 applications, about 40 per cent of which were in the higher education sector, he said. Most of the rest represented school teaching, although some proposals had come from the further education sector and from professional and commercial trainers.

"There is obviously a rich vein of thinking already existing, and the research proposals currently range from ways of improving teaching to researching the way students learn," he said.

"But there will be no big brother determining the agenda. We intend to consult widely."

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