I was recently elected to Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy/Advance HE (SFHEA) – I was previously a Fellow (FHEA) since 2019. I achieved this through the HEA Education Excellence Program hosted by the Monash Education Academy, and was lucky enough to have Prof. Claire Palermo as my mentor during this process.
Senior Fellowship is awarded to professionals who demonstrate they meet the criteria of Descriptor 3 (D3) of the Professional Standards Framework (PSF) for teaching and supporting learning in higher education. It is suitable for individuals whose comprehensive understanding and effective practice provides a basis from which they lead or influence the learning and teaching practices of others (peers, colleagues, mentees, etc.) who teach and/or support high-quality learning.
To be awarded Senior Fellowship, individuals must evidence that their effective and inclusive practice meets the following three Descriptor 3 criteria statements:
- D3.1 a sustained record of leading or influencing the practice of those who teach and/or support high quality learning.
- D3.2 practice that is effective, inclusive and integrates all Dimensions.
- D3.3 practice that extends significantly beyond direct teaching and/or direct support for learning.
This is achieved through a context of practice statement, a reflection on the descriptors, two case studies that illustrate the standards in action, and two referee statements. This was a challenging but rewarding application that required significant reflection on my teaching, mentoring, and supporting others who teach. If you’re applying for SFHEA I have two main pieces of advice:
- Engage a mentor who is familiar with the process. Claire was able to guide me on where I was being too descriptive and not reflective enough, as well as providing guidance on framing my context of practice without taking up valuable word count.
- Plan out your evidence in advance. I mapped a number of achievements against the descriptors, and made sure to select cases that had a wide spread of descriptors. I provided references to literature to support choices I made. I also included a mapping of evidence to descriptors, as well as a matrix of descriptors and where they were addressed throughout my application.
