The CATE scheme is open to all Higher Education Providers (HEPs) across the four nations of the UK, including Further Education Colleges and independent ‘alternative’ providers. Each UK HEP is invited to nominate one team that can clearly demonstrate having an impact on teaching and learning through collaboration.
In order to participate in CATE, institutions must be Advance HE Full or Affiliate members; participation in the scheme is a benefit of membership, i.e. no additional fee is due for participation. Advance HE expects institutions to ensure that their processes for selecting a team to nominate do not discriminate against individuals on the grounds of equality and diversity and are inclusive to the variety of ways in which staff and students contribute to learning and teaching, considering the full diversity of their staff and student body.
2020 CATE Winners
Meet the 2020 CATE winners.
Nominations for 2021 are now open
The purpose of the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) is to recognise and celebrate collaborative work that has had a demonstrable impact on teaching and learning. Introduced in 2016, the scheme highlights the key role that teamwork plays in higher education. Each award will recognise a team which has enabled a change in practice for colleagues and/or students at an institutional or discipline level. There is no limit on the size of the team. Nominations will close 12:00 (GMT) 10 March 2021
Insight into the award criteria video series
We have created a set of videos to guide you through the award criteria for the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence.
Benefits of winning a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence
Gaining a CATE has a number of benefits for both individuals and their institutions.
| Benefits to teams | Benefits to institutions |
|---|---|
| Provides teams with national recognition and profile of their collaborative work in learning and teaching within higher education. | Offers an extension to university wide team-based recognition schemes, as a means to raise the status of learning and teaching. |
| The award can help ‘open doors’ to new collaborative or career opportunities. | Showcases the institution’s support of collaborative approaches to developing teaching excellence and the impact on learning and teaching. |
| Join a national community of like-minded professionals who are passionate about collaborative approaches to teaching excellence. | Enables staff to collaborate and network with colleagues across disciplines, themes, institutions, nations and countries. |
CATE Roadshows:
Prof Mark O’Hara, CATE-Net Co-ordinator, will be facilitating four webinars – three (repeated on different dates) focusing on helping those applying for CATE in the 2020/21 academic year, and one focussing on helping those thinking of applying further in the future. Details of these CATE webinars are as follows:
“Applying for CATE in 2020/21”
If you are planning to submit a claim for CATE in the 2020-21 cycle these briefings will introduce you to the nature of the Award and its associated professional and institutional benefits. It will help you to understand the process and timelines and will offer practical suggestions and advice from previous CATE winners.
Date: 7th October, 1-2.30pm. Book here.
Date: 11th November, 1-2.30pm. Book here.
Date: 1st December, 12-1.30pm. Book here.
“Planning for CATE in 2022 and beyond”
The collaborative nature of CATE means that many successful bids are centred on projects that have been years in the making. This workshop is aimed at those who are thinking long-term about how to advance a collaborative endeavour in their institution over time to the point at which a bid for CATE would be within reach. The themes covered will include, spotting potential, nurturing and investing and building a collaborative culture.
Date: 27th January 2021, 10am-12pm. Book here.
Past winners
Each team has demonstrated evidence that their collaborative work has had a demonstrable impact upon teaching and learning.
This could be impact on colleagues and/or students at an institutional or discipline level.
In 2016 and 2017, winning teams received a monetary award to implement their dissemination plan and assess the impact of their work.
If you would like to gain some inspiration and find out more about past winners review the full directory below.
