New support for library staff working towards HEA fellowship awards

HEA Fellowship awards provide a great opportunity for anyone who wants to demonstrate their commitment to professionalism in supporting learning and teaching in higher education. The UCL Arena Open programme, which is free to UCL staff, provides a route to Higher Education Academy (HEA) / AdvanceHE fellowship and is open to all staff at UCL who teach or support students’ learning, regardless of role or job title, so it’s relevant to all sorts of roles within Library Services. In addition to gaining you post-nominals, the process of applying means you reflect on your teaching and learning support work and develop your skills, identify areas for your future development and enhance your support of students so contributing to the user experience.

UCL Arena are launching a brand new course that is being delivered online this summer, specifically to support Professional Services staff, including Library Services staff. This is a great opportunity for anyone thinking of applying for Associate Fellowship or Fellowship. Details of the course are below.

Contributed by Angela Young.

Professional Services Staff – Pathway to Arena Fellowships

Course description:

Professional Services (PS) Staff make an important contribution to UCL’s mission, by providing training and support for learning. This course is a development pathway for PS Staff, leading (ideally) to the submission of an application for fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

The course will enable you to think creatively about supporting teaching, learning, and assessment in your role. It will guide you in developing a fellowship application in a structured way over four synchronous, interactive sessions and through a variety of tasks. You will also have the opportunity to meet colleagues from different parts of UCL and to discuss how your experience maps to the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF).

Learning outcomes:

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• identify ways in which your role and work experience supports high quality student learning and student outcomes
• reflect on your professional practice and consider the ways it impacts on the learning of others
• recognise the importance and value of your work and how it contributes to UCL’s operations and strategy
• understand what a good UCL Arena fellowship application looks like
• demonstrate how your experience and knowledge meet the relevant criteria of the UKPSF for the appropriate fellowship category

Dates/times of sessions:

• Session 1: Thursday, 9 July 2020 (14.00 – 15.30)
• Session 2: Tuesday, 21 July 2020 (14.00 – 15.30)
• Session 3: Thursday, 6 August 2020 (10.00 – 11.30)
• Session 4: Tuesday, 11 August 2020 (14.00 – 15.30) OR Wednesday, 16 September (11.00 – 12.30)

Who should apply:

This course is ideal for PS staff who have worked in higher education for at least two years and provide teaching and student support. It is most suitable for (but not restricted to) PS staff who work in programme/teaching administration, digital education, library services, teaching laboratories, and student wellbeing.

How to register:

Please complete this form by 5pm on Monday, 29 June, if you are interested in participating in this course:

We can only accept a maximum of 20 people for this course and will be confirming places on a “first come, first serve basis”. We will confirm your place on the course by 6 July 2020.

Please be aware that there will be a little bit of preparation to do before the first session and ‘homework’ to do between each session. We’ll be targeting Associate Fellow applications, but with scope for Fellow application development if participants have the appropriate experience.