What is Fellowship?

Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) is an indicator of professional achievement for higher education practitioners. It confers the entitlement to use the post-nominal letters AFHEA (Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy), FHEA (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy), SFHEA (Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy) and PFHEA (Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy).*

What are the benefits of Fellowship?

It is important to note that Fellowship is highly valued at Sheffield Hallam University. It is a sought-after qualification, is included on the new academic role person specification pro-formas as an essential (non-removable) requirement, with Senior Fellowship being a desirable criterion for Principal Lecturer appointments, and forms a significant part of the Learning & Teaching strand of the Academic Careers Framework . It is also valued nationally as a professional qualification by universities and colleges who collectively established the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) on which recognition is based. There are now over 170,000 HE practitioners with one or other of the fellowship categories and there is a rapidly growing international recognition of fellowship as a badge of teaching quality.

Most practitioners who have gained recognition have found it to be an important reflective process. It has increased their confidence in what they do by formally recognising its quality and appropriateness.

For an individual it demonstrates your professionalism and promotes the ethos of an academic community of practice.

For a course team it allows them to evidence the quality of teaching on the course and shows the team’s commitment to enhancing the quality of the student experience.

For an institution it showcases the University’s teaching quality and its support for the professional development of its staff. The statistics related to this can be used by the institution to satisfy Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) requirements and support Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) submissions.

For the sector it demonstrates the quality and maturity of its teaching standards and its investment in maintaining the value of a UK higher education, nationally and internationally.

*Please note that, although the HEA has now been reconstituted as Advance HE bringing together 3 separate organisations (Higher Education Academy; Equality Challenge Unit; Leadership Foundation) under one coordinated leadership structure, it has been confirmed that the post-nominal letters for Fellowship outlined above, are being retained.

Find out how this route meets the TALENT Principles.