NTU Fellowship Community- More than numbers

Welcome to Fellowship Week 2019 at NTU. This is the first time we have hosted a fellowship week where we shine a light on professional recognition for learning and teaching at NTU.  This is an opportunity to turn up the volume on fellowship, share experiences and celebrate our learning and teaching landscape at NTU. But wait, over the week we are joined via #fellowshipat4 @NtuTilt by individuals across the UK and globally- so welcome!

But first a little local knowledge………………

In the Summer 2018, the NTU was re-accredited by AdvanceHE to award all categories of fellowship gained via submission to the scheme or by successful completion of the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice. The award of fellowship and engagement in the Professional Standards Framework is based on the premise of reflective practice- the ability to bring criticality to your academic practice, to showcase your academic decisions and your effective responses to learning situations.

Like many institutions, we have taken several routes to embed professional recognition into the systems and structures of NTU- from placing emphasis on contractual requirements via linking to human resources and career pathways to signposting colleagues to support mechanisms. Our current puzzle is thinking about how we provide more flexibility in our support and approach. We are aware that not everyone likes to digest information in guidebooks or have time to attend formal workshops. What we have observed though is that when people get together and are invited to talk about their teaching and learning practice the room can light up! Fellowship week, the use of twitter and proactively sharing fellowship experiences is our way of testing the waters to create more of a social movement around fellowship.

A community at a glance

Here’s what our fellowship community looks like in terms of numbers across the categories. However the graphic hides the diversity of which we are proud of. Within those numbers are individuals from all the disciplines at NTU; individuals who are full time, part time and hourly paid lecturers; individuals who are technicians, work in support services, line managers, teachers and researchers. More diversity lies in the claims these individuals have authored to gain their fellowship including expertise in technology-enhanced learning, successful leaders, assessment gurus and those with a flair for creative pedagogies- to name but a few! A special mention and thanks goes out to our reviewers, advocates and mentors who support the fellowship scheme. These individuals are an essential part of our community, ensuring equity of experience, quality assurance and enhancing the way the scheme is developed. So whilst as a community there is a unifying thread of responding and upholding the UKPSF- the diversity is what makes our fellowship community a thriving and stimulating place.

Fellowship Community Action

So knowing more about our fellowship community should go some way in reassuring you that you are far from on your own in this fellowship game. In fact knock on your colleague’s door and ask where they are up to with their submission- who in your department is a reviewer?

With over 1,000 individuals, our fellowship community is a powerful resource. It however requires nurturing both formally and from the action of the individuals. Here’s a few ideas:

• Tying your scholarship activity with fellowship requirements. If you are drafting a new module handbook or testing out a revised assessment strategy- spend 20 minutes to write a case study based on this experience.
• Linking fellowship up with your research activity. If you are submitting abstracts to conferences think how you are embedding your research outputs into curricula. Doctoral supervisor? You can make a fellowship claim in this role
• Whatever stage you are in your fellowship writing or whichever category you are aiming for check out the NOW Learning Room for support & resources
• Share your fellowship status. Add your post-nominals to your email signature, update your HR teams with changes to your fellowship status.
• Talking about your fellowship journey- what helped? how did you motivate yourself?
• Seen a great piece of teaching or learning support? Encourage the person to write it up as a case study for their fellowship submission
• We are looking for case studies, vlogs and blogs that tell others about fellowship. Interested in creating this (could be added as evidence for SFHEA!)
• Join in with fellowship week! You can join a workshop (advertised in the NOW learning room) or keep dropping by this blog space. Over the week we will publish a blog a day covering writing tips & busting fellowship myths. We will also be uploading some videos on NOW from members of our fellowship community about their experiences.
• Follow #fellowshipat4 and chip into the discussion about your fellowship activities

• Don’t stop on Friday! Fellowship week is a kick start- we would like to learn from activities over the week but do plan to continue. In fact save the date 27th March 20.00GMT we will be joining @lthechat & @AdvanceHE_chat for a twitterchat to share ideas about reflective practice in HE.