The following is based on the Advance HE guidance for fellowship. The SHU TALENT requirements differ from the Advance HE in the format of the submission. However, all the criteria and the scope of practice indicated are the same.
Associate, Fellow or Senior Fellowship is awarded to professionals who can demonstrate they meet the relevant criteria of Descriptors 1 – 3 (D1, D2, D3) of the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) for teaching and supporting learning in higher education.
By applying to become an Associate, Fellow or Senior Fellow you will have the opportunity to:
- Think broadly about and thereby enhance the quality and effectiveness of your work in the area of teaching and supporting learning in higher education
- Gain national and increasingly international recognition for your role as a teacher and/or supporter of learning within the higher education context.
- Reflect on and thereby enhance the quality and effectiveness of your work in the area of teaching and supporting learning in higher education;
- Model good practice for other staff and be able to encourage and support them to seek recognition for their work in this area;
- Increase your influence and impact by gaining national and increasingly international recognition for your contribution to teaching and the support of learning within the higher education context.
Please ensure that you have watched the ‘Getting Started Guide’ video and attended a development workshop prior to commencing.
You may additionally find one of our full day writing retreats a useful way to set aside focused time to complete your application. Guidance and feedback will be available from the facilitators throughout the day.
General Principles for Completing your Submission
When preparing your submission, it may be helpful to consider the following general principles:
- The UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) is central to the recognition of individuals as fellows. You will need access to, and a working knowledge of, its contents in order to prepare your application.
- There will be considerable variation in applications, reflecting differences in individuals’ experience, their job roles and institutional contexts. The reflective account of practice and CPD reflection (D3 only) and case studies (D1-3) enable such diversity to be appropriately represented.
- Ensure that you adopt a reflective stance: evaluating and rationalising your practice, learning from failure, changing your position.
- Make sure you include any evidence of success, influence and impact in teaching and/or supporting learning. All your evidence should be based on real examples of practice which draw upon scholarly activity in learning and teaching.
- Provide selective examples of practice in your submission and ensure they have direct relevance to your claim for fellowship. The quality of your evidence is much more important than the quantity of examples you provide.
- Where you reflect on any historic professional practice as part of your evidence, ensure you reflect on its current impact on your or others’ professional practice and on the wider learning and teaching context.
- It is important that you address all the Dimensions of the UKPSF. Your submission should make clear how you apply the Core Knowledge and Professional Values to the evidence in your submission. This alignment of your work to the UKPSF is essential. The evidence should be incorporated across your submission in both your reflective commentary (D3) and case studies (D1-3).
- Your submission is a personal account and its focus throughout should be on your own professional practice and decision-making. Although you may work collaboratively ensure that you acknowledge this and identify your own role and contribution clearly.
- Being a personal account means that you should attempt to use the first person throughout rather than either third person or the passive voice, so that reviewers can identify the practice as your own.
- Incorporate relevant subject and pedagogic research and/or scholarship in your approaches. How you evidence this will depend on the context in which you are working, the nature of the subject, discipline or profession in which you teach and the expectations of the institution in which you work.
- Your application should be founded on a process of continuing professional development which demonstrates your understanding of effective approaches to teaching and/or learning support.
- A critical characteristic of Senior Fellows is that they are able to demonstrate the successful co-ordination, support, supervision, management and/or mentoring of others (whether individuals or teams) in relation to learning and teaching. Ensure you sufficiently evidence this in your submission.
- Any citations to publications, journals, books or websites you choose to include will be accommodated in addition to your overall word count. Include these in the relevant section at the end of the application form.
Click on the arrow above for further information on the general principles.
All your experience and evidence included in the submission must relate to HE provision such as:
- Level 4 or above within the Framework for Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ) in England, Wales or equivalent;
- Level 7 or above within the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) or equivalent
- First cycle or above of the Qualifications Framework in the European Higher Education Area (QF-EHEA);
- Level 5 or above of the Australian Qualifications Framework;
- Level 5 or above of the New Zealand Qualification Framework;
- Other equivalent higher education frameworks;
- activity focused on supporting students in a higher education context, providing the student(s) are enrolled on a Higher Education Qualification (see standards listed above), may also be considered as evidence equivalent to the higher education frameworks;
- Delivery of non-accredited continuing professional development for academic and professional learning staff may also be considered as evidence equivalent to the higher education academic frameworks.