The values held by academic developers are having an increasing impact on the "professional development" of inexperienced higher education teaching staff. As the new academic begins to reconstruct their identity as part of their role, they draw from a range of different and sometimes competing collective values and these now include the academic developers'. Despite increased knowledge about the work of the units these academic developers belong to, relatively little is known about their individual or collective values. As standards relating to teaching are developed within higher education, it is likely that these units will play a key role in implementing these. The impact of these developments on inexperienced academics is likely to increase. Subsequently it is important to understand what collective values the academic developers share so that we can judge the influence they may have upon new members of the academy.Much has been written about the importance of collective tribes and social roles on the development of an individual's values. McInnis (1993) has suggested that within higher education there are a number of potential collective values competing for an individual's attention: the institutions'; their disciplines; and their own department. With the increasing emphasis on national professional standards (DfES, 2003) a key response has been the development of programmes aimed at enhancing learning and teaching within higher education (Gosling, 2001 and Bamber, 2002). Currently the ILTHE accredits 164 programmes at 114 higher education institutions (ILTHE, 2003) and the new Higher Education Academy is likely to further this work. A historical analysis will examine how collective values have been developed within the increasingly complex academic environment of higher education. The analysis will focus upon the work of Becher and Breakwell to examine the notion of collective values. This will be put into context with the work of Beck, Baumann and Barnett, to consider how the development of collective values can be viewed in the postmodern era. Such an analysis will assist in developing a framework for identifying the potential collective values that may predominate within academic development units. Within the growing complexity of the academic environment and with increased scrutiny on standards it is important to understand the impact that academic development units and their collective values can have upon inexperienced teaching staff. To make this possible it is first important to identify what these collective values are and the context within which they are developed.BibliographyBamber, V. (2002) "To What Extent Has the Dearing Policy Recommendation on Training New Lecturers Met Acceptance? Where Dearing Went that Robbins Didn't Dare" Teacher Development 6 (1) 433-456Department for Education and Skills (2003). The future of higher education HMSO, NorwichGosling, D. (2001). "Educational development units in the UK - what are they doing five years on?" The International Journal for Academic Development 6 (1) 74-90ILTHE (2003). Annual Report 2002/3 ILTHE, YorkMcInnis, C. (1993). Academic values under pressure CSHE, Melbourne