ABSTRACT
The approach of this chapter is in part autobiographical, of part of my academic career in one UK institution. However, the issues it discusses are germane to others who have embarked on or are considering the long hard road of developing an institutional policy, culture and practices for developing students' key skills. In reading this account, readers need to know that it is presented from three time periods of my career:
from 1975 to 1990 as geography teacher, developing with colleagues an innovative curriculum which now would be seen as developing key skills;
from 1990 to 1995 as a central policy maker, developing at Oxford Brookes institutional requirements on key skills and also working with other UK institutions who were developing similar policies;
from 1996 to 2000 as in part bemused onlooker, but also as an educational developer working across the institution.
