A message to our Technicians

Dear Members of the Technical Staff,

Our Technicians at Durham University represent a sizeable body, with over 170 staff distributed across multiple departments. Our staff are experts and have specialist skills that support research and education, and are essential in the delivery of the business of the University. I would like once again to acknowledge and thank the outstanding work of our technical staff. There are multiple examples of our technical staff playing essential roles as we recover from the pandemic in supporting the return of research and education towards normal capacity, as well as the normal duties our staff perform. 

The Technician Commitment Steering Group continues to work hard on your behalf, with members developing support activities, producing newsletters and planning for future in-person events. Durham University has engaged with various external professional bodies developed to support the work and development of our Technicians, for example: HEaTED – which is a leading organisation for Higher Education and Technician Educational Development, providing opportunities for the technical workforce to engage with CPD and training, as well as delivering networking events and courses for all specialities; NTDC – which provides organisations with support to deliver high quality and sustainable technical services including: the recognised NTDC Toolkit; advice on talent recruitment and retention; promotion of professional registration; developing technical networks; workshops and presentations; staff surveys. More information is available via our website.

I am also pleased to confirm that we are planning future networking activities for our technical staff, where colleagues can meet, share views, and get to know one another more over refreshments. This includes more regular networking events and planning for our 2023 annual meeting of the technical staff which will be similar to the highly successful previous events. Please look out for announcements by email and on our website for more information about these meetings, and I look forward to seeing you there.

I would like to thank all members of the Steering Group who are working on your behalf to help deliver our action plan for the Technician Commitment. We always welcome your input, views and ideas to help further develop the Technical Staff Community so do please contact us. And to finally emphasize again, our technical staff are an essential element that underpins the operation of our University, and on behalf of the University, I thank you all for your ongoing dedication and support.

Professor Stefan Przyborski

Chair, Technician Commitment Steering Group

Dean of Infrastructure