Vice-Chancellors Distinguished Teacher and Professional Support Staff Awards 2017

The Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Teacher awards aim to raise the status of teaching and learning at Newcastle Universityby rewarding those individuals who make a marked impact on enhancing the student learning experience.

Key dates

Scheme opens / 20 February2017
Deadline for submission of applications / 9.00am Wednesday 26 April 2017
Panel meeting / am 11 May 2017
Applicants notified of outcome / Late June 2017
Presentation at congregations / July and/or December 2017

Categories and eligibility for award

The Award is open to all individual members of staff, at Newcastle, NUIS and NUMed, whose work enhances the student teaching and learning experience. In addition applications are welcome from staff of associated employers with direct and substantive involvement in the delivery of the student experience at Newcastle, for example, staff of INTO Newcastle University.

The awards fall into the following 3 categories:

Category 1: General award

  • Up to 3 awards for individual members of academic staff whose contribution to teaching and learning at Newcastle is exceptional

Category 2: Societal Challenge award

  • Up to 1 award is available for individual members of academic staff working within any Societal Challenge theme. The themes are ‘Aging’, ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Social Renewal’, the web page for the Societal ChallengeTheme can be found here

Category 3: Professional Support award

  • Up to 1 award is available for individual members of professional support staff whose contribution to learning, teaching and the student experience is exceptional.

Prizes

Each year up to 5 awards of £5,000 will be made available to support teaching and learning activities, including to buy equipment; to fund studies or travel; to buy in research support; and to buy out staff time (with the agreement of the Head of Academic Unit or Service).

The awards will be presented at a relevant summer (or winter) congregation. There will be a University celebrating success event providing the winners with the opportunity to meet each other.

Criteria for the award

Award categories 1 and 2 will be judged against the following criteria:

  • demonstrating transformational leadership of learning and teaching
  • demonstrating high quality and effective commitment to personal tutoring (where appropriate) and pastoral care as well as academic support of students
  • demonstrating creative and effective approaches to learning, teaching and assessment that have improved the student learning experience
  • demonstrating effective innovation in curriculum design, content, and delivery
  • demonstrating excellence in supervision of postgraduate students
  • demonstrating high levels of student satisfaction through a portfolio of recentstudent evaluations
  • development of teaching opportunities for students to engage with Societal Challenge Themes [for Award 2]

Award category 3 will be judged against the following criteria

  • demonstrating high quality and effective support for student learning and the student experience
  • demonstrating a sustained approach to this support over time
  • demonstrating creative and effective approaches to supporting student learning
  • demonstrating a positive impact on colleagues and students
  • demonstrating leadership in the support of learning

Nomination for award

Please note that for 2017, the process for nominating and selecting staff has changed. Please read the instructions carefully and note items 4 and 5 below.

  1. Staff, either individually or in small groups (groups can include student members), are invited to put forward individualmembers of staff for the awards.
  2. The nomination must be made in the name of the Head of Unitor other senior colleague.
  3. No one can be nominated more than once every two years, if you are uncertain whether the person you wish to put forward was nominated last year please contact Sue Gill, who will be happy to help.
  4. Nominations should take the form of
  5. a pro forma which provides details of the member of staff put forward, the proposer, and the support from the Head of Unit plus;
  6. a document, maximum of 2 sides of A4, listing key activities/markers undertaken by the applicant, against the criteria for the award.To be completed by the proposer in discussion with the applicant.
  7. Members of staff nominated will be invited to attend the panel meeting (morning of 11 May 2017) where they will:
  • give a 15 minute maximum verbal presentation (no PowerPoint or other visual aids allowed, nominees are welcome bring notes and examples to share evidence and support their nomination) demonstrating the impact their activities have had against the criteria with up to anadditional 10 minutes for questions from the panel;
  • Note the session will be recorded, audio only. The recording will only be used by the panel and Vice-Chancellor in making their selection and will be deleted afterwards.
  1. Staff considering nominating a colleague for an award are strongly recommended to make use of the resources in the attached Appendix to assist them in completing the application.
  2. Please use the forms and supporting information hereto make your nomination.
  3. Only submissions made using the forms will be considered; they must be submitted together in one emailby the nominee to LTDS . Please title the email ‘VC award nomination’. All submissions will be acknowledged on receipt.

Selection Process

The selection process will be carried out by a small panel consisting of:

  • Pro-Vice Chancellor (Teaching and Learning)
  • A National Teaching Fellow
  • A previous recipient of the award
  • University Librarian
  • A student representative
  • A representative of LTDS

Sue Gill,
LTDS, February2017

Appendix 1: Notes to help complete the forms

Guidance for the Head of School, Institute or Service Citation

This is a short piece which should provide brief evidence of the positive effect the nominee has had on colleagues in your unit and beyond (if appropriate),and students as a result of the work they undertake. It is intended it will complement the list of activities in the second document and should not repeat the information provided there.

Please do include how you know a difference has been made – for example student feedback, staff remarking on the better preparedness of the cohort, increase in average marks for a module, increase in student numbers wanting to take a module or programme.

Please do not exceed the word limit.

Guidance for the Examples of Activity

Here are some examples of the types of activity you might include in your examples form

  • development/revision of new/existing modules or programmes; laboratory sessions; workshops,
  • university wide projects to improve activities or services
  • interactions with external partners,
  • involvement of students in your activities,
  • comments from external examiners on your modules/programmes,
  • requests to be an external examiner,
  • being a member of an education committee for your discipline,
  • joint projects with other HEIs or similar partners,
  • presenting on your teaching at School, Faculty or University Learning and Teaching events,
  • presenting on your student support activities at Faculty, institution-wide events or external events
  • Student feedback. (Members of academic teaching staff should include feedback from students, both formal, such as module feedback and informal comments or other testimonials. Please supply more than one years’ worth of data as the Vice-Chancellor is looking for sustained achievement.)
  • Requests to share work with others in the university eg through School Learning and Teaching committees, Faculty admin fora
  • Student led teaching award nominations or awards
  • External teaching awards
  • Leading/participating in discipline specific projects internally and externally

(This is NOT an exhaustive list, but provided to give an indication of possible sources to consider.)

Guidance for preparing for the presentation

When preparing for the presentation we recommend that you

Look at the criteria and your activities and select the most compelling examples against each criterion to make your case for the award.

Make sure you cover all the criteria, take the opportunity to show the panel the breadth of your activities. If youare an academic but don’tundertake research student supervision that will NOT affect your application, please just let the panel know.

Do not just use one project or activity across all criteria, the panel will be looking for a broader picture than that.

Provide analysis and evidence of impact not description. What is needed is a critical appreciation of how or why your activity or actions worked effectively or was good; how do you know this what the impact was on students or colleagues and how they responded. Support your assertions with evidence from more than one source

Where the activities you’ve undertaken are innovative or unusual for the subject or discipline it is very helpful to point this out. The panel have a wide range of experience but they do not know the detail of every discipline so this will enable to them to make a more accurate judgement.

Been clear about what it is which makes what you have done be ‘excellent’. Your colleagues would not have put you forward if they didn’t believe in your abilities and the positive impact you have!

Checklist

Before you submit the application have you:-

  • Completed all sections, including indicating if the nominee does NOT undertake research student supervision,
  • Developed a clearly laid out portfolio of evidence to support the application, with clear links between the portfolio and the application, this will greatly help in your presentation to the panel,
  • Got the signature from the nominee,
  • Used a range of sources of evidence,
  • Supported assertions with evidence from more than one source?

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