Rewarding faculty boosts research, teaching, learning quality

Engaging faculty in fellowship schemes fosters a culture of reward and recognition for teaching and professional development among faculty members – hence playing a critical role in enhancing excellence in teaching and supporting learning, according to experts.

In the book, Transforming Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Stories of impact from the Aga Khan University, published in October 2023 by the Aga Khan University (AKU), a private university with six campuses in East Africa, Pakistan and the United Kingdom (UK), education experts say that fellowships such as those awarded by Advance HE (Higher Education) can help transform university teaching.

Advance HE awards the fellowship to faculty whose work and practice meet the expectations of the Professional Standards Framework (PSF). PSF is an internationally recognised benchmark used for raising the profile of teaching and learning within the higher education sector.

Creating a culture of reward

In their book, editors Jane Rarieya, the dean of Aga Khan University’s Nairobi-based Institute for Educational Development, East Africa; Tashmin Khamis, vice provost responsible for quality, teaching, and learning at AKU; and Lucy Spowart from the UK’s University of Plymouth, say that the fellowship scheme “was attractive to AKU as a mechanism for realising the institutional vision of creating a culture of reward and recognition for teaching-supporting learning”.

This led to the development of an in-house continuous professional development scheme dubbed the Teaching Enhancement Accredited Certification of the Higher Education Academy (TEACH), to award fellows and their associates.

To introduce the TEACH scheme, the university embarked on a process of developing a critical mass of faculty who understood fellowship to act as advocates, mentors and assessors of the scheme. As such, 12 AKU teaching staff, including educational developers of the Network of Quality, Teaching, and Learning (QTL_net) that was established 10 years ago to enhance faculty members’ teaching excellence and scholarship of teaching and learning, gained fellowships in 2017 while the provost of teaching and learning received a principal fellow award.

Thereafter, the QTL_net was used to demonstrate the linkages between programmes and professional development activities aligned with PSF to build a common understanding of the framework among faculty.

Supportive learning environment

One of the TEACH participants quoted in chapter two of the book said: “Participating in the TEACH scheme has been an incredibly enriching experience for me as an educator-researcher. Through the programme, I was able to enhance my reflective writing and critical appraisal skills which has positively impacted my practice. The programme also provided me with a platform to connect with fellow educators and exchange ideas, leading to a more collaborative and supportive learning environment.”

The chapter’s lead author, Sahreen Chauhan (the manager: the Teachers’ Academy, Network of Quality, Teaching and Learning at AKU, who oversees the TEACH scheme) says that the university’s PSF is now embedded within the institution. This is evident through how it underpins academic promotion, institutional teaching-related awards like the Award of Excellence in Teaching and Teaching Leadership, and the teaching dossier required for membership of the Haile T Debas Teachers’ Academy – a prestigious group of outstanding teachers at AKU.

As a result, she says “promoting reflective practice among the AKU faculty members has helped them to transform teaching. They develop an understanding of what leads to effective learning and, therefore, provide effective learning experiences for their students”.

A moderator of the scheme quoted in the book says TEACH has “prompted discussion and deep reflection on teaching and learning by participants, critical friends, and assessors and helped to raise the profile of teaching and learning within the institution. It is a true example of the value of fellowship schemes”.

Aligning with international standards

As the inaugural fellowship scheme at AKU, the university faced the challenge of applying the framework used by Advance Higher Education (the PSF) in a new context. “We overcame this challenge by supporting a small group to achieve fellowship to create a critical mass of colleagues with a good understanding of the PSF,” Chauhan said.

In addition, she said, QTL_net provided various platforms to disseminate how the programmes and professional development activities it offers aligns with international standards and the PSF. Embedding Higher Education Academy fellowships in institutional processes, like promotion and awards, she says, was also challenging in the research focus at AKU but was made possible with the support of the university’s academic leadership.

According to Professor Tashmin Khamis, vice provost of quality, teaching and learning at AKU, “engaging with HEA fellowships enables faculty to engage in reflective practice around teaching as they set to demonstrate how they meet the professional standards of PSF for higher education, teaching, and support for learning.” She says that HEA fellowships provide faculty with an internationally benchmarked higher education teaching qualification recognised globally.

Faculty stories captured

In reference to the book, Khamis said that, when the university established QTL_net about a decade ago, there was tremendous feedback from faculty who had engaged with the scheme on how much they had benefited in terms of impact on their teaching and their students’ learning.

“We decided to capture these stories of impact which demonstrate that professional development in teaching in higher education leads to improved teaching practices. Faculty are more prepared for their classes through lesson planning, learning classrooms are more active, courses are competency-based and focused on learning outcomes, and there is greater use of technology to engage the learner,” Khamis told University World News.

Through the book, she said, the university has been able to document stories on the impacts of teaching that are not only learner-centred but also research-led, with faculty engaging with and producing scholarship around teaching and learning. The book also documents AKU’s teaching innovations like QTL-net’s impacts on the institutional teaching culture.

Khamis said that effective teaching is rewarded and recognised through awards, teaching fellowships, and teaching portfolios required for academic promotion with the importance and profile of teaching coming into the spotlight during the COVID-19 pandemic around the world.