A supported journey to fellowship at Dublin City University (DCU) is the first-of-its kind in Ireland, and has resulted in DCU enjoying the highest number of Advance HE fellows nationally.
Over 60 fellows across all categories of fellowship and faculties at DCU were recognised this month at a special DCU event to celebrate their achievement and to acknowledge their commitment to professionalism in teaching and learning.
DCU became a member of Advance HE in 2019 and formally launched a pilot of the Fellowship Scheme. Following the success of the pilot, led by DCU’s Teaching Enhancement Unit, 18 staff were awarded the appropriate category of fellowship. In 2021, the scheme was opened to all staff and the first supported (online) journey to fellowship was launched with the Teaching Enhancement Unit providing a programme of events and resources to support direct application to Advance HE. Forty-two staff embarked on the road to international recognition of excellence in teaching and learning.
Currently, an additional 23 staff are pursuing fellowship through the supported journey, with another intake in January 2022.
DCU's Teaching & Learning Strategy 2017-2022 recognised the changed learning environment for students and we committed at that time to a professional development framework that would recognise the work that individuals do, but one that would also continue along that journey of a changed student learning experience.
"The decision to become a member of Advance HE has been a really worthwhile engagement by the University and it has contributed in a very significant way to date.
"I would like to congratulate these 60 fellows who have gone on that reflective journey. This is a wonderful start and something we’d like to see extending into its hundreds across the University over time.”
Billy Kelly, Dean of Teaching & Learning at DCU
Lisa Donaldson from the Teaching Enhancement Unit, said: "Fellowship is a wonderful opportunity to pause and reflect on your teaching practice, perhaps the moment is particularly opportune given the complexities overcome by lecturers in the context of teaching during a pandemic."
Join our social media celebration
Having reached a significant milestone in Fellowship, we are inviting our colleagues to join us in celebrating awards to over 150,000 higher education professionals across all four Fellowship categories.
Support for fellowship
We have a number of services available to support you if you are thinking of applying for one of our categories of Fellowship, from our category tool to help you find out which category is most closely aligned to your practice to our Principal Fellow Record of Educational Impact (PFREI) support sessions which offer bespoke guidance on completing the REI element of the PF application with an experienced reviewer.