Back in April 2018 when I first became involved in our technical staff project at the university, it was unknown as to whether designated “technical staff” were indeed the entire technical community.
Granted, there were those who had the term as part of their title, but what about those who were part-technician or part-demonstrator? The question was asked - how do we define a technician? This raised further questions like whether STEM covers all our bases and whether I was able to include my all technical staff within the remit of the Technician Commitment.
I didn’t wish to be exclusive with the remit of my project, but instead wished to emphasise my deep encouragement for more to become involved.
I searched the Oxford English Dictionary for a definition: “A person employed to look after technical equipment or do practical work in a laboratory”. Well that isn’t broad or all-encompassing for those who have technical aspects to their role and aren’t directly involved with laboratories! We have accounting technicians and educational technologists who don’t set foot in laboratories. What about everyone else? I then read an article by HEaTED (https://www.stem.org.uk/heated/definition-technician-higher-education-suggestion) suggesting indeed that the ambiguous term needs redefining.
Although a global dictionary amendment surge hasn’t happened, as an institution we are happy to be inclusive of all colleagues who wish to be involved in the Technician Commitment, aligning with this statement of definition.
