Supporting Imperial's great teachers

Staff discussion at the EDU's Annual Education Day event.

As part of Imperial's commitment to delivering world class teaching, the Education Development Unit is supporting excellent teachers to lead the way.

Imperial has a number of Higher Education Academy (HEA) Fellows who have been supported in developing their practice and now demonstrate excellence in their teaching.

The HEA Fellowship programme recognises commitment to best practice in teaching and learning. There are currently around 65,000 HEA Fellows across the higher education sector.

Imperial has its own in-house programme to support staff in applying for HEA Fellowship. Open to academic and non-academic staff who are engaged in teaching work at the College, the STAR framework run is by Imperial’s Education Development Unit (EDU).  

The programme is designed to reward and recognise dedicated teachers from across the College. The framework recognises staff who demonstrate an ongoing commitment to developing their teaching practice in higher education and supports their applications for HEA Fellowship.

Dr Martyn Kingsbury, Director of Education Development said: “With the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) professional recognition with HEA fellowship is increasingly valuable across the HE sector and useful more widely as evidence of good technical communication skills.”

Teaching the Teachers

We spoke to three of Imperial’s Fellows about why they applied for their HEA Fellowship.

Dr Parsapour Shadeh – Locum Consultant Vascular Surgeon (HEA Associate Fellow)

In my role I regularly teach medical students, junior doctors and nursing staff.

I went to university and did my training in Italy and despite the fact that I have always been involved and enjoyed teaching, I had not received any teaching training. Once I started working in England I noticed that there were lots of opportunities for me to improve my teaching skills.

The process to achieve the fellowship was easy. I received a lot of help and support from the EDU, everyone was friendly and very helpful. I have a very busy schedule working within the NHS but they have always been accommodating for one to one meetings and guiding me through the application.

I think Fellowship is essential for anybody involved in teaching the future generations. It teaches the teacher the most effective teaching methods, guides them on how to assess their students and also how to assess the effectiveness of their own teaching methods.

Dr Andrew McKinley - Principal Teaching Fellow, Department of Chemistry (HEA Senior Fellow)

I became a Teaching Fellow at Imperial because I really enjoyed the curriculum development side of things and I decided I wanted to make education my career focus.

I initially did the EDU’s PG Cert in University Learning and Teaching which I really enjoyed. It was good to have that academic training and I found that what I was doing in my teaching was correct. The PG Certificate gave me the confidence to try new things in teaching and the more I did the more interested I became.

When the College joined the HEA I was encouraged to apply for a Senior Fellowship by the Education Development Unit. I attended the STAR workshops which were useful as they allowed me to bounce ideas of other people going through the same process.

My advice for anyone doing it would be to take your time over the process. The reflection is valuable and you can really get a lot out of it.

Becoming a fellow has given me confidence as an education professional in a research focussed institution – often authority can be drowned out by research expertise. It provides you with a sense of validation of your skills and professional knowledge which has given me the confidence to support colleagues to develop their teaching too.

Georgina Wildman - Senior Library Assistant (NHS Support) (HEA Fellow)

My role at Imperial as a Senior Library Assistant means I offer teaching and training to NHS staff on library and research skills.

I was encouraged to apply for an HEA Fellowship by my manager. Originally I applied for an Associate Fellowship but was encouraged to re-submit my application for a full Fellowship instead and the EDU were really supportive in helping me upgrade my application.

The process was quite easy and the help from the EDU was invaluable. Being made to reflect on your practice is really useful. It was a new way of thinking about my job and skillset compared to what I’d done before.

Becoming a Fellow has given me extra confidence in my ability - it’s an achievement to have it. It’s particularly useful within the NHS when working with teaching professionals across the trust. It helps demonstrate that we’re working at the same level and demonstrates my professional ability.

Developing Education

The EDU offers the STAR framework as part of a variety of provision to provide a needs-based and timely approach to the educational development of all who teach at Imperial.

They provide a range of stand-alone workshops covering various aspects of learning and teaching, a range of taught programmes up to master's level and a bespoke consultancy service for all involved in teaching at Imperial.

If you are interested in applying for HEA Fellowship contact the Education Development Unit. You can also find out more about the STAR introductory workshop online or contact them by email.