Distinguished Collaborative Education Excellence Fellowship

What is it for?

The Distinguished Collaborative Education Excellence Fellowship is awarded to teams who have a track record of supporting learning in HE and can demonstrate a team-based initiative that demonstrates highly effective problem solving or innovation that benefited from the team approach and has led to positive impact on L&T.

In particular, the collaboration will be directly related to the Educational Excellence themes and priorities within the University’s strategy and will focus on an initiative that demonstrates effective problem solving, enhancement, or innovation in L&T.

The purpose of the award is to recognise, reward and celebrate staff teams who support learning excellence and to create a proactive learning community within Ulster.

Up to three awards are normally available and the award of £1500 to successful teams should be used to support the recipients’ CPD in teaching/learning support.

Distinguished Collaborative Education Excellence Fellows will be expected to share their experience and practice with colleagues at Ulster.

Who is eligible?

• Any teams made up of members of staff who teach/support learning and who have made a meaningful contribution to the collaboration.
• Teams may include students and or external partners who have contributed to the team's aim and objectives
• A Team will represent the core team and normally consist of a minimum of 3 and maximum of 15 members
• All team leads, and normally all team members, should have achieved AFHEA, or another category of HEA fellowship, at the time of making their application.

Teams should provide a 2500-word Reflective Statement and Case Study on their particular contribution to collaborative excellence through a team-based initiative that demonstrates highly effective problem solving or innovation that benefited from the team approach and has led to positive impact on L&T at Ulster University.

Submissions should be endorsed by the Team Lead’s Line Manager to confirm the veracity of the claims made within the application.

How is the award judged?

The award scheme is judged by a panel including the PVC Academic Quality and Student Experience, all Associate Dean(s) (Academic Quality and Student Experience), representatives of Learning Enhancement, the Awards’ Manager, representative University National Teaching Fellows and the President of UUSU.

Criteria

The Assessment Panel will be looking for the team’s ability to:

• Demonstrate Collaborative Excellence: Show evidence of a team-based initiative that demonstrates highly effective problem solving or innovation that benefited from the team approach and has led to positive impact on L&T and aligns to Ulster L&T priorities.
• Demonstrate evidence of: a clear set of aims, objectives and rationale for the team’s approach and how the group constitutes a team and developed as a team, working collaboratively and how collaborative working has been an advantage, demonstration of direct involvement of students with the team.
• Support the claim with independent evidence of how the collaborative work has enhanced student learning, such as testimonials (particularly from key stakeholders e.g., students, colleagues), supporting data and/or evidence of effectiveness and impact – (evidence should be integrated throughout the claim and contributes to the word count.)
• Demonstrate clearly how the initiative adds something novel, enhancing, or innovative to supporting learners in their area.
• Be underpinned by relevant reference to the professional knowledge base in HE learner support practice.
• Include reflection on or evidence of how their intervention has begun to have impact within the broader L&T community that is beyond the team’s local area

When to apply

• Applications should be received by next deadline TBC
• Submission as a single PDF File via the Award Dropbox on BBL