Finally making progress towards senior fellowship

I have been talking about Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy for at least two years now. How much has actually happened? Not an awful lot! But that is changing now.

I even got kicked in the bum by HR. They checked whether I was aware that I wasn't going to get incremental wage increases if I didn't get to fellowship. I confirmed I knew it. But then I also had to get on with it. 

The lady who is responsible for that kind of application is actually in my School, so I asked her if she had a few minutes to talk to me about it. She did. And she already helped me out greatly; I turned out to be on the wrong track. There are two ways towards senior fellowship, and I had been reading up on the wrong one! Luckily, I hadn't prepared much that wouldn't come in handy for the correct way. 

I mentioned already I have to come up with two case studies that show pedagogical leadership. I will indeed use the two positions within the school I have for that: EDI lead, and Academic Integrity Officer. I have no idea if that will be good enough. But one way to find out! 

Another big part is a so-called claim grid. The HEA has three sets of five criteria you have to meet. And in the claim grid you have to list activities that prove you have met every single one of these criteria. You are supposed to spend about 1500 words on that. So you need to elaborate a bit. I must admit, sometimes I am a bit clutching at straws. But we'll see! Only one way to find out if it is convincing.

The other aspects of the applications are: a teaching philosophy statement, and two letters of recommendation. The former sounds a bit vague, but it has to be evidence-based. The latter have to actually comment on the content of the application, so firstly it is quite a lot of work, and secondly, the application has to be pretty much ready by the time you ask people to write those. I had better get on with it!

I am making good progress with my claim grid, and have been making a start with the philosophy statement. So the process has started! That’s a critical change. I hope I will be satisfied with what I have by December! And then it would be a matter of keeping my fingers crossed…