The applied music team from the University of the Highlands and Islands has won a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) and Lois Gray, a lecturer and academic lead developer for engineering based at North Highland College UHI, has been named as a National Teaching Fellow 2021.
The team behind the University’s BA (Hons) applied music degree includes staff from Lews Castle College UHI and West Highland College UHI. The innovative course is designed and delivered by professional musicians, educators and industry experts and covers traditional, Celtic, pop, jazz, classical and rock music.
Anna-Wendy Stevenson, programme leader for the course, said: “Collaboration is central to all our lives - as educators and members of society - and is a core skill within our subject area of music. It is wonderful to celebrate our work with the prestigious collaborative award for teaching excellence and have our team recognised for their passion in developing and connecting the many communities we serve through higher education.”
Lois Gray is a chartered engineer who has been teaching at the University for over 15 years and is a passionate advocate for women in engineering. She said, "I am absolutely delighted and honoured to receive this National Teaching Fellowship award. With teaching being such a fulfilling occupation, I feel gratified to find that the work I do naturally to prompt my students to give their best is worthy of such a prestigious award.
"The achievement is as much due to my students’ hard work as to my optimising their chances to succeed. I couldn’t have achieved this without the support of my colleagues, who have embraced my sometimes rather speculative ideas and strived to make my programmes as inclusive, attractive and rewarding as possible. I am lucky to work for a progressive, young university. This award will allow me to share my ideals and scaffold my aims to provide formal qualifications to those who deserve, but have previously lacked opportunity, and to prepare the next generation of engineers for the advancing digital, industrial revolution.”
Nominations for CATE and NTFS 2022 open on Monday 4 October 2021. Find out more about the 2021 winners of the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme and Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence.