The University of Fort Hare, South Africa has become the 400th Advance HE member institution. UFH is looking to continue its work towards Advance HE accreditation, which will allow it to directly award Fellowships to those delivering and supporting teaching and learning, following successful completion of an accredited programme.
UFH is a public university in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, which has offered programmes for students across Sub-Saharan Africa for over 100 years. Its notable alumni include Nelson Mandela. They have already established a group of staff recognised as Fellows and are looking to expand this group and seek accreditation for their Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education and Training, a comprehensive learning and teaching programme. If successful UFH will become the first Advance HE accredited provider in South Africa.
Prof Vuyisile Nkonki, Director of UFH’s Teaching and Learning Centre and Senior Fellow, said: “We are delighted to be able to continue our work with Advance HE, following the global pandemic, to recognise the amazing work of our teaching staff through the Fellowship scheme. The scheme is renowned across the world as a marker of teaching quality and we are very happy to be able to support our staff with their continuous professional development through our partnership with Advance HE.”
Advance HE members span the length and breadth of the globe, with member institutions in 27 countries across the Middle East, South East Asia, Australasia, Africa, the USA and Europe, as well as the UK and Ireland. Our members range from specialist providers and colleges with HE provision to large, world-renowned universities.
In addition to gaining accreditation for your in-house teaching and learning programme in support of recognition through Fellowship, Advance HE Strategic Membership offers our members a range of valuable benefits such as access to projects where you can collaborate with other members from across the globe to learn from each other and co-create solutions addressing contemporary challenges. Members can also bid for funding through our Collaborative Development Fund projects as well as enjoying a range of discounts on consultancy, programmes and events. More information on Advance HE membership can be found here.
Accreditation from Advance HE is a demonstration that a member’s staff development scheme aligns with the internationally recognised Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning (PSF) and allows members to award Advance HE Fellowship to successful staff, at no additional cost.
Kathryn Harrison-Graves, Advance HE’s Director of Membership and Accreditation said; “It is a genuine pleasure to welcome the University of Fort Hare to the Advance HE global membership community and we’re delighted to be working together to recognise the excellent work of those who teach and support learning across the institution. The growing community of member institutions across the globe creates a great opportunity to share learning and what works in a broad range of contexts and I look forward to continuing to build these connections for our members across the world.”
The Fellowship scheme continues to grow around the world and we recently awarded the 150,000th Fellowship across the four categories; Associate Fellow, Fellow, Senior Fellow and Principal Fellow. It demonstrates a personal and institutional commitment to professionalism in learning and teaching in higher education and is an internationally recognised indicator of teaching quality.
Designed to enable institutional, staff and student success, Advance HE membership packages give you access to world-leading services which will support you in helping you shape your future in today’s highly competitive HE market.