Associate Fellowship

If you are fairly new to a role in teaching and/or support for learning or may have a limited teaching portfolio you may want to aim for Associate Fellowship, covered by Descriptor 1 (D1) of the PSF 2023.

You should provide evidence of effectiveness in relation to your professional role which will typically include at least some teaching and/or learning support responsibilities. You will need to present some understanding of effective teaching, learning support methods and student learning.

Typical roles and experience for people applying for Associate Fellowship are:

• early career researchers with some teaching responsibilities (e.g. PhD students, GTAs, contract researchers/post-doctoral researchers etc.);
• staff new to teaching, including those with part-time academic responsibilities such as Associate Lecturers (ALs);
• staff who support academic provision (e.g. learning technologists, student support, study skills specialists, careers and learning resource/library staff);
• staff who undertake the role of demonstrator/ technician with some teaching-related responsibilities.

Fellowship at this level recognises contribution where the full range of academic practice may not be possible due to limitations in experience or role.

Read the Getting Started pages initially if you are unsure if Associate Fellowship is right for you.

Route to Associate Fellowship

Staff can apply for Associate Fellowship on the basis of existing practice/experience.

Applying for Associate Fellowship

Associate Fellowship Application Requirements

Context statement 

This is optional – not assessed and not included in overall word count.
3 minutes verbal/digital story or 300 written words max.

Reflective case studies

When selecting your case studies you should bear in mind that you are aiming to produce approximately 15 minutes verbal/digital stories or 1,500 written words in total with an absolute maximum of 20 minutes verbal/digital stories or 2,000 written words. Within those boundaries, however, there is considerable flexibility and it is up to you to decide both how many case studies you produce and how long each case study should be depending on the scale and depth of each, but to a suggested minimum of 3 minutes verbal/digital story or 300 written words each.

Reference List

500 words max – written only. This is not included in the overall word count.

Two Referee Statements

Approx. 5 minutes verbal/digital story or 500 written words

• At least one must be a Hallam employee; 
• At least one must be a Fellow, Senior Fellow or Principal Fellow;
• If Referee One is both a Hallam employee and a Fellow/Senior/Principal Fellow then Referee Two can be either Hallam or External and may or may not hold a category of Fellowship. 
• Referee one should confirm that a practice observation has taken place within the past year.

What should your submission cover?

The Professional Standards Framework 2023 Descriptors (D1 – D4) each consist of a set of three statements that form the final criteria you should be able to provide evidence for to achieve the relevant category of fellowship. The Dimensions of Practice (Areas of Activity, Core Knowledge and Professional Values) are incorporated within these criteria, but there are additional elements for each Descriptor that will also need to be met within your submission. It is important that you map against these criteria across your submission Case Studies and reflective pieces and make sure your referees focus their written statements towards the Descriptors also.

For Associate Fellowship these are the requirements (Descriptors) you must show in your application:

• D1.1: use of appropriate Professional Values, including at least V1 and V3
• D1.2: application of appropriate Core Knowledge, including at least K1, K2 and K3
• D1.3: effective and inclusive practice in at least two of the five Areas of Activity

You should refer to Advance HE's guidance for Associate Fellowship which will help you to understand the purpose and meaning of the Descriptors in more depth and, in particular, how they relate to each other and how you can use them effectively within your submission evidence.

Preparing your application

1. Download an application form (DOCX, 290.3KB)
2. Choose your topics and gather evidence for your case studies. Decide on the format for your case studies.
3. Identify your referees.
4. Arrange your observation of teaching practice.
5. Create your application, taking advantage of cohort support like peer advice and writing retreats.

We recommend you map the dimensions of practice inside your application as this will help ensure you have met all of the criteria.

Finalise and submit your application

1. Finish creating your application.
2. Send your referees your application and a link to the referee guidance and form (DOCX, 281.5KB).
3. Each referee writes their referee statement and sends it back to you.
4. Submit your application and all referee statements to recognitionofteaching@shu.ac.uk as Word documents.

Get Support 

For further questions about Advance HE Fellowship and teaching recognition programmes, you can email recognitionofteaching@shu.ac.uk