At present most professions require that new entrants have acquired a pre-specified level of functional competence agreed specialized practical skills and applied theoretical knowledge. Teacher educators based in universities play important roles in the professional formation of intending teachers, influencing the future practices, values and attitudes of their students. Yet, despite the clear importance of teacher educators in Initial Teacher Education and Training, they are in general an under- researched and poorly understood occupational group. Little empirical research has been undertaken that analyses the professional knowledge underpinning their work. Very few studies have analysed this professional knowledge from the perspectives of the students and of the teacher educators themselves. Existing research indicates that teacher educators are often seen as uneasy residents of the academy with their academic and professional identities located in and across both the HE and school sectors. In the last decade, the fast pace of change in the school sectors and changing government requirements for Initial Teacher Education and Training courses have involved them in struggling to provide courses which are 'demanding, relevant, and practical' (Furlong et al 2000:144), as well as research-led. At the same time, the changing Higher Education context has meant increased pressures on them to meet academic imperatives, including the production of publications meeting the criteria for the Research Assessment Exercise.This paper draws on a research project in the United Kingdom but its findings contribute to current debates about the professional preparation of teachers and professional identity of teacher educators in Europe and elsewhere. The study of 1,500 student teachers and their tutors was conducted in three UK universities. This institutional sample provided data from the diverse Higher Education settings for teacher education, both in terms of institutional differentiations of the universities, and of differing geographical locations. Between them, these three universities offer Initial Teacher Education and Training courses across a wide range of subjects and focuses, preparing students to teach in sectors of education from nurseries to Further Education Colleges.The paper explores the beliefs and attitudes of student teachers towards their own professional formation and the part played in that formation by university based teacher education including: how students define the professional knowledge of teacher educators in universities; what students think it means to be a good teacher educator; how they define teacher educators as contributing to their professional development. The paper then compares and contrasts the students' views with those of the teacher educators leading those programmes by exploring their perceptions of the changing academic and professional identities, and knowledge bases, of teacher educators.Finally, drawing on the two sets of findings the paper identifies how these two groups see the changes in academic identities affecting the quality of the student teacher experience. In particular the paper problematises the provision of research-led teaching models, and students' attainment of professional standards in competence-based models of Teacher Education and Training.