About the ANU EFS

 

What is the Educational Fellowship Scheme (EFS)?

The ANU Educational Fellowship Scheme (EFS) recognises those at ANU who have contributed to student learning experiences by supporting and awarding them with Advance HE (previously Higher Education Academy or HEA) fellowships.

We support and award three categories of fellowship; Associate Fellow of the HEA (AFHEA), Fellow of the HEA (FHEA) and Senior Fellow of the HEA (SFHEA).Ā  In addition, we support applicants for the Principal Fellow (PFHEA) category for direct application with Advance HE. Whichever category you choose, you will be asked to reflect on your practices, values and philosophies as an educator, your accumulated experiences in higher education, and different kinds of education-related expertise. Learn more…

What are our aims?

 

 

 Aim 1
To support individual members of academic or professional staff from the Australian National University (ANU) to gain internationally endorsed professional recognition as university educators through an appropriate category of Advance HE fellowship. Fellowship award requires applicants to describe, reflect on, and evidence past practice that includes:

  • experience in, and knowledge of, teaching and learning at tertiary level, and/or student learning support.
  • engagement with relevant professional development.
  • commitment to professional values and professionalism as a university educator.
Aim 2
To develop and support a community of fellows across the ANU community to share best practice and engage in ongoing educational professional development.
 

 

 

 

 

 Aim 3
To broaden the approach to professional development and professional recognition of teaching and learning activities at ANU, by providing staff with:

  • a reflective framework of standards that gives ANU staff involved in teaching and learning a clear understanding of what they do, how they do it, and why they do it that way.
  • a recognition structure linked to the Staff Education Programs for Learning and Teaching Professional Development run by CLT.
  • an externally benchmarked measure of esteem for promotion cases, performance reviews, and job applications.
  • opportunities for ongoing peer engagement, networking, and intra- and cross-institutional benchmarking opportunities
Aim 4
To support ANU in showing national leadership in the sector, through engagement with effective professionalisation of the ANU teaching and learning workforce.

 

What is AdvanceHE?

Advance HE, previously known as the Higher Education Academy or HEA, is an independent non-profit organisation committed to world-class teaching in higher education. It works in partnership with institutions and individuals in higher education supporting student success. Advance HE brings the sector together to collaborate, and share teaching strategies and practice, and currently has over 150,000 fellows around the world, with moreĀ than 1,200 of those in Australia. Since being introduced to ANU in late 2013, the ANU EFS has awarded more than 400 HEA fellowships to ANU staff, and more than 250 to staff from external universities.

How did the ANU become a leader in professional recognition?

In June 2013, ANU signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the HEA (now Advance HE) to become its first subscribing higher education institution outside the UK, and thus the first Australian university to invest in professional recognition of teaching strategy open to all its staff. To initiate the institutional standard, a small group of academic staff with track records of teaching excellence – identified by institutional/national teaching awards, and/or institutional/discipline leadership – successfully applied directly to HEA as Senior or Principal Fellows. This provided a cohort of champions across campus to provide high level visibility and endorsement of HEA recognition, and to support others in developing applications.The ANU EFS was subsequently accredited by the HEA to follow detailed and quality processes to award all four categories of fellowships to those who meet the PSF standards in Australasian university contexts.

The unique relationship between ANU and the HEA was soon supported by national awareness-raising, discussion and research, sparking great interest across the sector which an additional 200 successful applications to the EFS from around 30 other universities across Australia, New Zealand and China.

In May 2016, the first Australasian Symposium on Professional Recognition of University Educators was held at ANU University House. The Symposium attracted more than 70 delegates from 18 Australasian universities, the Australian Department of Education, New Zealandā€™s Ako Aotearoa, and the HEA, and enhanced the national interest in recognition through HEA fellowships. Many other Australasian universities, including other Group of Eight universities, have now joined ANU in subscribing to HEA or putting staff forward for fellowships. In February 2017, the HEA launched its Australasian Strategic Advisory Board in Canberra, and this was hosted by ANU.

Australian Universities subscribing to Advance HE:
  • Australian National University
  • The University of Tasmania
  • Murdoch University
  • Queensland University of Technology (QUT)

 

Institutions that have worked with ANU to enable fellowship applications through the ANU EFS:
Australia:
  • Charles Sturt University
  • Griffith University
  • Macquarie University
  • University of New England
  • University of Queensland
  • University of the Sunshine Coast
  • University of Wollongong
New Zealand:
  • Auckland University of Technology

 

Institutions from which individuals have applied for fellowship through the ANU EFS:
Australia:
  • Central Queensland University
  • Curtin University
  • Griffith University
  • James Cook University
  • Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)
  • University of Melbourne
  • University of Melbourne (Peter MacCallum Cancer Research)
  • University of Melbourne (Water & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
  • University of New South Wales
  • University of Queensland
  • University of Sydney
  • University of Tasmania
  • University of Technology Sydney
  • University of Wollongong
China:
  • Anhui Normal University
  • Beijing Dance Academy
  • China University of Political Science and Law
  • Heibei Medical University
  • Jiangsu Normal University
  • Peking University
  • Shanghai International Studies University
  • Southwest Jiaotong University
  • Southwest University
  • Wuhan University
  • Yunnan Normal University

 

How successful has the ANU EFS been?

The EFS has grown steadily, with consistent interest amongst staff from all colleges. In 2014, the “early adopters” were busy, with 112 successful applications for HEA fellowship. 2015 and 2016 saw continuous growth, with another 188 successful applicants, taking us to a magic 300 in 3 years! 2017 saw the largest cohort go through this program, making a total of 415 fellows. Have a look at our list of all ANU colleagues who have already been awarded fellowship.

For more information on the first three years of the EFS, please read the following paper:
Beckmann, E.A. (2016). Teaching excellence: Recognising the many as well as the few. In M. Davis & A. Goody (Eds.), Research and Development in Higher Education. The Shape of Higher Education, 39 (pp 13-22). Fremantle, Australia, 4 – 7 July 2016.