National Teaching Fellowship winners announced

Advance HE has announced the 55 winners of its National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) including five psychologists and neuroscientists. The NTFS recognises higher education teachers who have had an outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession.

This year's winners include Associate Professor Dr Pam Birtill (University of Leeds) whose recent work has examined the student experience, student learning, the hidden curriculum and the experiences of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. She has also worked to improve assessment and the student experience, create institution-wide assessment guidance, and curate events, workshops and training to improve assessment design and communication. She has also established an institution-wide network of colleagues with an interest in assessment. 

King's College London Professor of Neuroscience and Academic Advisor to the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning (CTEL), Ellie Dommett, is another of this year's NTFS winners. An advocate for evidence-based practice in education she joined King's College London to develop a Psychology BSc and later worked within CTEL, researching student and staff experience of digital education which led her to develop university-wide training in digital skills for new students.

Associate Professor and practising educational psychologist, Dr Denise Miller (University of Greenwich), is another 2024 NTFS winner and the first Black psychologist to be made a fellow. She works to enhance opportunities for traditionally marginalised educational professionals and children and young people and promotes equality, diversity and inclusion in education. Miller has introduced pedagogical frameworks shaped by psychosocial and decolonised principles and has carried out research on, and advocated for, equality, diversity and inclusion and has worked as a Lecturer, Inclusivity Champion, Personal Tutor and Module Leader at the University of Greenwich.

Another new NFTS fellow, Reader in Psychology Dr Robert Nash (Aston University), takes a particular interest in feedback literacy through his research and practice. Also an Advance HE Senior Fellow, Nash is Director of Undergraduate Learning and Teaching at Aston's School of Psychology and his work on feedback literacy aims to prepare students to engage with feedback and use it effectively. He has also created the Developing Engagement with Feedback Toolkit in 2016. 

Dr Christopher O'Donnell, Head of the Division of Psychology and Social Work at the University of the West of Scotland, is an academic from a working-class background who has a particular passion for widening access to education. As well as working with students from a range of marginalised backgrounds, O'Donnell has worked to influence his own institution and the wider academic community. He has served as a Senator, Union National Executive, and as a lobbyist to the Scottish Government. 

Find out more about the NTFS and this year's winners.

Keep your eyes peeled for more from this year's fellows in The Psychologist.