Senior Fellowship

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.

Senior Fellows lead and influence teaching and learning practice in many different settings. Working with and through ‘others’ (e.g. colleagues, peers, mentees, etc.) they operate to support, guide and initiate change or lead / influence enhancement of practice in a wide range of global contexts. Their contribution is effective, benefitting students and their learning experiences in a variety of ways. Senior Fellowship is not role dependent and there are many different contexts in which you might be leading and/or influencing the practice of others but the influence should be pedagogic (rather than managerial) in focus.

Senior Fellows will be expected to underpin their practice with greater depth of understanding and scholarship of teaching and learning. They are likely to be operating with a wider sphere of influence than Fellows or Associates (eg influencing practice at subject, department, college or institutional level) and thus will affect the experience of learners beyond those they teach directly.

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

Route to Senior Fellowship

Applying for Senior Fellowship

Senior 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.

Overall word count

For the reflective narrative and case studies below you may choose to vary the word/time count for each piece. However, you should aim to produce approximately 60 minutes verbal/digital stories or 6,000 written words in total with an absolute maximum of 70 minutes verbal/digital stories or 7,000 written words.

Reflective Narrative

Variable up to a maximum of 30 minutes verbal/digital story or 3,000 written words.

Two Case Studies

Both are variable up to a maximum of 25 minutes verbal/digital story or 2,500 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 Senior Fellow or Principal Fellow;
• If Referee One is both a Hallam employee and a 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 Senior Fellowship these are the requirements (Descriptors) you must show in your application:

• D3.1: a sustained record of leading or influencing the practice of those who teach and/or support high quality learning
• D3.2: practice that is effective, inclusive and integrates all Dimensions
• D3.3: practice that extends significantly beyond direct teaching and/or direct support for learning.

You should refer to Advance HE's guidance for Senior 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, 291.3KB)
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, 281KB).
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