The Teaching Excellence Academy was established in 2019 to celebrate, develop and promote excellent teaching at the University of Hull. For them, excellent teaching is scholarship of teaching and learning led, technology facilitated, and data driven. They have quickly grown to become agents of pedagogy-led strategic change reaching across the University.
Their approach facilitates the agency of colleagues university wide through active collaborative working; enabling personal action to support individual development of excellent teaching. They deliver a successful Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice and support the development of Postgraduate Research (PGR) students as university teachers. Their cohort-based programme to support colleagues to achieve Fellowship of Advance HE, their symposia and conferences, their academic development framework and their digital resources are transforming the educational experience of staff and students at the university.
When tasked with the development of a competence-based education framework to underpin an ambitious university wide curriculum transformation process the Academy jumped at the chance. Drawing on a scholarship of educational change and teaching and learning they worked with stakeholders across and beyond the university to develop an approach to inclusive and integrative curriculum development that would equip graduates with the skills to navigate the inherent uncertainty of the fourth industrial revolution. Recognising the transformative power of their framework they applied it first to their own portfolio and then supported others across the university to take a competence-based approach to their work.
Their work underpinned the university response to the Covid-19 pandemic as teaching moved online. Working at pace they provided training and support to the university community during the reactive phase of the transition to blended and online learning while at the same time moving their own provision online. Recognising the advantages of integrated digital learning in an on-campus context the Academy are now working to embed the lessons learned through the lockdown periods to build resilience into an excellent educational experience at the University.