Reflections on Advance HE Fellowship

Since 2018, 131 Navitas staff (and counting) have completed the Navitas Advance HE Fellowship program and been awarded Fellowship. Throughout this experience, Navitas staff have come together from various colleges globally to reflect on their academic journey and prepare their Fellowship application. While the process of writing a Fellowship application is a personal and individual experience, joining the program is a chance to meet and network with colleagues from different divisions and countries, often resulting in invaluable collegial support and lifelong friendships. In addition to online writing workshops led by Learning and Teaching Services (UPA) and resources provided in the program, the supportive community is also an opportunity for discussions, brainstorming, peer review of draft applications and receiving feedback.

Two recent participants have shared reflections on their personal journey to achieving Fellowship, and the full reflections can be found on the Advance HE website.

Faiza Qureshi (left image), Discipline Lead, Master of Education and Foundation; Chair, Learning and Teaching Committee at Murdoch University Dubai, achieved Senior Fellowship in 2021.

“I found the Fellowship experience particularly useful to pause for a moment and reflect on my rapid progress in various areas supporting academic staff to achieve student engagement, learning and innovative academic practices. Furthermore, preparing my Fellowship application helped me identify trends in my approach and define areas I would like to progress further in next to continue to enhance my practice.”

You can read Faiza’s full reflection here.

Lorena Ajuria, senior ELICOS teacher and mentor at the Centre for English Language in the University of South Australia (CELUSA), become a Fellow in 2022.

“Achieving Fellowship status provided a solid platform for in-depth personal reflection and evaluation of my teaching practice and student experiences. Along with strengthening the foundations for life-long learning, it facilitated opportunities for growth in leadership skills. In my journey to Fellowship, the paths I travelled proved to be rewarding in several ways.

As a first step, I took part in the Navitas Advance HE Fellowship Program …participating in the program while working extensively on the application drafting process was rewarding since it helped develop my writing style and for me to contemplate the draft content with the guidance of encouraging annotated feedback from the programme team. Importantly, I got to collaborate with the diverse Navitas Learning and Teaching community and participate in peer writing workshops, which I especially enjoyed.

Using the Professional Standards Framework as a lens to identify the right supporting evidence to demonstrate the areas of activity took time, focus, and lots of patient revision. In doing so, I began to see in-depth patterns in my practice relating to my core teaching competencies as well as areas I needed to work on. The reflective journey towards achieving Fellowship worked to boost my morale and wellbeing during my time working from home and gave me encouragement and empowerment in my personal and professional development. It’s a rewarding career path to embrace that can lead to insight and growth.”

You can read Lorena’s full reflection here.

We wish the 47 participants in this year’s program all the best with their application journey. If you would like further information on Advance HE Fellowship and the Navitas Advance HE Fellowship program, contact Karen.McRae@navitas.com.

Feature photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash