Technician Commitment
What is The Technician Commitment?
The Technician Commitment is a UK-wide initiative launched in 2017 to advance the visibility, recognition, career development, and sustainability of technicians working in higher education and research. Led by a steering board of sector bodies and hosted by the UK Institute for Technical Skills & Strategy, it invites universities and research institutions to become signatories and pledge action to support their technical workforce.
The Commitment focuses on four key areas:
- Making technicians identifiable and their contributions visible
- Supporting professional recognition
- Enabling career progression through clear pathways
- Ensuring the long-term sustainability of technical skills.
With over 140 signatory and supporter organisations, the initiative fosters a collaborative community that champions the essential role of technicians in research, teaching, and innovation. Technicians are recognized not only as support staff but also as educators and researchers, vital to the UK’s STEM future and institutional success.
Our Technician Commitment
Technicians are the backbone of learning, research and innovation at LSBU. Our Technician Commitment recognises their expertise and dedication, supporting their professional development and ensuring they have the opportunities and recognition they deserve.
“Our technical staff make an extraordinary contribution to the success of LSBU as an institution with a long history of professional-technical education and research. We have been working diligently in partnership with our technical, academic and professional colleagues to build a technician community that is empowered, valued, and engaged across the full breadth of our activities. I am excited by our 2025 - 2028 Technician Commitment Action Plan and look forward to working closely with stakeholders to further strengthen technical careers, integrate our technicians throughout our business processes, and celebrate their successes and reputation.”
Professor Rodney Day, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) and Chair of LSBU’s Technician Commitment Steering Group
The Technician Commitment Steering Group (TCSG)
The Technician Commitment Steering Group (TCSG) at LSBU includes representatives from across the university:
- Provost
- Academic Dean (Chair)
- Technical Services Managers
- Technician Champions
- Associate Deans of Research and Enterprise, Education and Student Experience
- Head of School
- People and Organisational Development
- Directors of Operations
- Project Support
Representatives of the following areas are invited to attend for specific agenda items, as relevant:
- Other PSG groups which could be considered in technical roles, e.g. IS
- Central EDI Team
- Estates
- Research Integrity/RIS
- Students’ Union
See Our Technician Commitment Action Plan (2025-2027)
News and Events
On 11 of June, we held our very first ‘Technicians’ Away Day’ at the Passmore Centre.
This event, organised by the Technical Services Managers, was an opportunity for our technical staff to come together, review our progress with the Technician Commitment, celebrate some of our achievements, provide a platform for sharing knowledge and good practice from across the University, as well as an opportunity to talk about future priorities.
The Technicians’ Away Day was the first time the Technician community from across the University had come together in this way. I was very pleased with the attendance and engagement of everyone. Our guest speaker, Dr Clare Stevenson, Head of Science Coordination and Research Culture, John Innes Centre, provided a comprehensive update on the TC and its achievements nationally to date.
I particularly enjoyed the presentations and success stories from our technicians. The presentations were interesting and varied in topic and included presentations from our established technical staff, as well as some recent LSBU graduates who have joined the technical staff after graduating. The technicians shared their experiences of obtaining teaching qualifications, completing an apprenticeship programme in leadership, completing the Herschel Programme for Women in Technical Leadership. We also had some interesting presentation on the outreach activities and extracurricular activities that our technical staff have led on.
Having attended the day I reflected on how far we have come in the past few years. In 2017, we were one of the early signatures of ‘Technician Commitment - TC’ (About us | Technicians). The TC is a university initiative, hosted by the UK Institute for Technical Skills & Strategy. The Commitment aims to ensure visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability for technicians working in higher education and industry, across all disciplines. In being a signatory of the TC, we have pledged action to tackle the key challenges affecting technical staff. Once a university signs up to the TC, they are expected to submit an action plan to the Science Council within 18 months. However, in October 2021, we still had not done this and were in danger of being expelled as a signatory, so we had some catching up to do!
Many colleagues across the University came together and worked incredibly hard to pull our first Action Plan together, which we submitted in December 2022. This allowed us to tackle the four pillars of the TC systematically and provided us with a solid framework to progress. We appointed our TC Champions The Technician Commitment - Connect and our TC steering group has been meeting regularly (currently chaired by Prof. Rodney Day, PVC R&I).
We made good progress across all areas and soon it was time to submit our self assessment progress report and our action plan for 2025-27 Phase 2 Technician Commitment Action Plan (2025-2027). Our report was reviewed by a trained peer review panel, consisting of representatives from the Technician Commitment signatory community. Here is some of the feedback we had received:
‘The team at London South Bank University presented a good clear breakdown of the technical staff and the areas that they support showing excellent institutional knowledge. It was especially pleasing to see that during a period of recruitment for technical staff, Technical Services Managers and Schools worked collaboratively to identify technical needs and role requirements resulting in increased technical resources across the institution.’’
In recognition of the submission, we were presented with an Award of Impact at Technician Commitment Signatory Event in May 2025.
The away day ended with presentation of a series of awards to some our technicians nominated by the technician community. I always think any award given by your peers is real testament to one’s achievement. On this front, it was very apt that the ‘Award for Dedication’ was made to Ken Unadkat, who has been a Technician at LSBU for over 50 years. Well-deserved, Ken!
Finally, I like to thank all our technicians for the amazing contribution they make to our teaching, our research, our students and the life of the University.
We’re proud to announce that Holly Sutherland, one of our talented technicians has been shortlisted for a Papin Prize in the Best Newcomer category!
The Papin Prizes are the only UK awards dedicated to celebrating technical excellence and innovation in higher education and research. This year, 68 individuals and teams from across the country have been shortlisted across ten categories, selected from over 300 nominations.
Dr Kelly Vere MBE, Director for The UK Institute for Technical Skills & Strategy and Technician Commitment Programme Lead said: “Many congratulations to all individuals and teams who have been nominated and thank you to the colleagues who took their time to nominate to raise the profile and status of technicians within the sector.
“The Papin Prizes recognise and celebrate the very best technical staff across the UK. Because the submissions are invited from people who work with technical staff, they also increase recognition and visibility of technicians,” she explained.
The awards will be presented at the 2025 UK Higher Education Technicians Summit which is taking place on Wednesday 9 July at Leonardo Conference Centre, Watling St, Burbage, Hinckley, LE10 3JA.
We’re proud to be nationally recognised for our commitment to our technical staff.
LSBU won an impact award last month from the UK Institute for Technical Skills and Strategy (ITSS) for our work on The Technician Commitment. The ITSS and the Technician Commitment aims to promote professional development, and ensure long-term support, for the technical workforce working across all disciplines in higher education and research.
We were recognised for our “commitment to ensuring visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability of technical skills and roles” in the ceremony in Belfast and are one of 120 institutions who are signatories of the scheme, which is supported by sector bodies.
We’re a proud sponsor of the scheme and have 55 technicians working across LSBU whose expertise supports activities across our teaching and research.
Professor Rodney Day, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation) and Chair of LSBU’s Technician Commitment Steering Group, said: “Our technical staff make an extraordinary contribution to LSBU’s success as an institution with our long history of professional-technical education and research.
“Raising the profile of technician-led innovation promotes inclusivity and helps demonstrate the vital role technical staff play in shaping the University’s research and teaching culture. We’re delighted that this work has been recognised.”
A great example of this work in action is through one of our technicians, Tim Fransen. Tim is co-investigator on the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) -funded Responsible AI Research Skills Project: Ways of Machine Seeing. He contributes both technical expertise and critical insight into the ethical use of generative AI and has led workshops and presentations at Tate Modern, The Photographers’ Gallery, and the UCL Institute of Education, with a focus on developing critical AI literacy for educators.
Tim is a technical tutor on the BA (Hons) Fashion Communication and BSc (Hons) Product Design courses. His work sits at the intersection of technology, education and ethics.
His activities reflect our wider commitment to recognising and embedding technical expertise across research, teaching and public engagement. In line with the Technician Commitment Action Plan (2025–2027), he contributes to raising the visibility of technician-led innovation, supporting inclusive practice and demonstrating the vital role of technical staff in shaping the University’s research and teaching culture. By working with academic colleagues and wider public engagement, Tim supports LSBU’s aim to develop sustainable, future-focused technical careers that are central to educational and research excellence.