Advance HE Fellowship is an indicator of professional achievement for higher education practitioners. It confers the right to use the titles Associate Fellow, Fellow, Senior Fellow and Principal Fellow.
Fellowship is achieved by demonstrating how your practice in teaching and/or supporting learning in HE meets the criteria laid out within the Professional Standards Framework (PSF 2023).
Benefits
Fellowship is highly valued at Sheffield Hallam University. It is a sought-after qualification, is included on the academic role person specification as an essential (non-removable) requirement, with Senior Fellowship being a desirable criterion for Associate Head appointments, and forms a significant part of the Learning & Teaching strand of the Academic Careers Framework. It is also valued nationally as a professional qualification by universities and colleges who collectively established the Professional Standards Framework (PSF 2023) on which recognition is based.
Most practitioners who have gained recognition have found it to be an important reflective process. It has increased their confidence in what they do by formally recognising its quality and appropriateness.
“It is a developmental process that increases confidence, which is so important to feel and for students to see. It helps to align the University’s commitment to teaching quality.”
“Reflecting on practice is a good way to highlight and challenge assumptions.”
For an individual it demonstrates your professionalism and promotes the ethos of an academic community of practice.
For a course team it allows them to evidence the quality of teaching on the course and shows the team’s commitment to enhancing the quality of the student experience.
For an institution it showcases the University’s teaching quality and its support for the professional development of its staff. The statistics related to this can be used by the institution to satisfy Office for Students (OfS) requirements and support Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) submissions.
For the sector it demonstrates the quality and maturity of its teaching standards and its investment in maintaining the value of a UK higher education, nationally and internationally.
Categories
There are four categories of fellowship that can be awarded. You can find out more about each of the categories and how to achieve them by clicking on their links below. Advance HE also offers a tool to help you choose the right level of Fellowship. Everyone should complete this tool to help them understand the appropriate level for them - job titles like Senior Lecturer do not map directly to corresponding categories like Senior Fellowship.
Associate Fellow (D1)
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 think about Associate Fellowship.
Fellow (D2)
If you engage in teaching and learning as the main part of your role or have considerable experience in supporting learning in HE, you may be considering Fellowship.
You may come from a wide variety of contexts but your practice should have both breadth and depth to cover all of the requirements.
Senior Fellow (D3)
Senior Fellowship (Descriptor 3) is the appropriate category of fellowship to professionally recognise individuals with significant experience, from a wide variety of different contexts whose comprehensive understanding and effective practice provides a basis from which they lead or influence those who teach and/or support high-quality learning.
Principal Fellow (D4)
Principal Fellowship provides professional recognition for highly experienced individuals that lead and have had an extensive impact on high quality learning at a strategic level within or beyond an institution, or across a discipline or profession in higher education. Their impact is extensive and sustained.
Understanding the Professional Standards Framework
Read our page which explains the key aspects of the Professional Standards Framework that apply to everyone achieving a level of Fellowship.
