The Western Educational Fellowship Scheme (WEFS) provides academic and professional staff with an opportunity to apply for international recognition of their educational practice with Advance HE.
The Fellowship enables staff to benchmark their practice according to the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF). Advance HE Fellowships are internationally recognised, portable and ongoing. Applying for a Fellowship encourages staff to use the UKPSF to review, develop, benchmark and demonstrate the quality of their education and teaching practice.
Becoming a Fellow demonstrates a commitment to reflective teaching, learning support, and effective educational practice within the discipline and/or division in which you work. For academics, a Fellowship adds to the suite of evidence for academic performance and promotion and for professional staff, it offers visible recognition of how your work supports students’ educational success.
Round 6 launch and timeline
We are pleased to confirm another supported round of applications is now open. If you are interested in applying for a Fellowship please complete an Expression of Interest to join the program.
Date | Activity |
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22 February
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Round 6 launch - Expressions of Interest open
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29 February
|
WEFS Information Session - view the recording |
11 March
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Q&A Drop-In session (online via Zoom) |
15 March
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Expressions of Interest close
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End March
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Applicants notified of their outcome
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Early April
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Orientation session for successful applicants (online via Zoom)
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Mid-May
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Group mentoring commences
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July/August
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Writing support sessions and mentoring check-ins
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End September
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Submission
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What is involved?
There are four categories of Fellowship, reflecting the wide range of learning and teaching support carried out by academic and professional staff working in the higher education sector. To begin, staff choose and negotiate the category of Fellowship that best reflects their educational practice. Advance HE's online Fellowship Decision Tool assists staff in determining the category of Fellowship that best reflects their current role and experience. Staff then prepare a written application to demonstrate how their practice is aligned with the UKPSF. Participants will also need to obtain Supporting Statements from two referees. The final application and the referees’ statements are submitted to Advance HE to be assessed by an international panel of Advance HE Assessors. Upon receipt of relevant Fellowship by Advance HE Fellows are entitled to use post-nominal letters to recognise their category of Fellowship. An overview of the categories is outlined below.
Please note: It is highly recommended that you utilise the free Advance HE Fellowship Decision Tool to diagnose which Fellowship is most appropriate for you to apply for. This will help you determine if you are ready to apply for a certain category of Fellowship, or whether you need to engage with further professional learning and other activities to upskill and collect required evidence before considering applying in this round.
Category | Description | Word count | Min. estimated writing hours |
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Associate Fellow (AFHEA) |
Some teaching and/or support for learning responsibilities
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1,400 words
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20 hours
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Fellow (FHEA) |
Broad experience of teaching and/or supporting learning
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3,000 words
|
30 hours
|
Senior Fellow (SFHEA)
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Experienced staff with leadership roles/responsibilities related to teaching and/or for supporting learning
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6,000 words
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40 hours
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Principal Fellow (PFHEA) |
Significant experience of strategic leadership roles/responsibilities related to teaching and supporting learning, with evidence of a sustained and effective record at an institutional, national or international level.
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Suggested 7,000 words
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45+ hours
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Successful Fellows join a community of over 6,500 Advance HE Fellows in Australasia, and over 174,000 Fellows world-wide. They have ongoing access to the resources and opportunities for professional learning and development provided by Advance HE.
Our Scheme at Western
Since 2017, WEFS has supported five rounds of academic and professional staff to develop Fellowship applications. Currently, Western has over 100 Fellows comprised of doctoral students, project officers, sessional teachers, librarians, subject coordinators, APAs, DAPs, Associate Deans, and L&T senior leaders.
In WEFS you are supported through
- a suite of opportunities to develop your Fellowship application
- collegial group mentoring (led by existing Fellows)
- access to the WEFS Teams site containing guidance, templates, scholarly resources, videos and examples of successful Western Fellowship applications
- workshops to unpack the UKPSF 2023 Descriptors, and
- application drafting writing sessions
What do Western Fellows say about the Experience?
“I thought the level of support was excellent. As a sessional staff member, it was great to be included; I think more sessional tutors would consider applying if they were confident it would be recognised by Subject convenors / senior academics, and would play a role in securing further teaching work”.
“this is a great process to consolidate existing professional practices that I think could be expanded more broadly to offer professional development in teaching and learning for staff that could culminate in a WEFS application.”
“One of the most challenging but best experience during COVID-19. I felt a sense of purpose and was driven to accomplish this work to the best of my ability. Felt really good after completing this.”
How can I become Fellow?
There are two ways:
- Expressions of Interest to join WEFS Round 6 have closed. If you are interested in joining any future offerings of WEFS please contact Badugulang.
- You can apply on your own at any time that suits you, and pay the application fee yourself (or have a conversation with your supervisor about WEFS in the context of your performance goals for the year). As Western staff, you are eligible for the discounted rate. To support your application, you will have access to the latest information (templates, guidelines, example successful Fellowship applications) on the WEFS teams site but you are unable to access to collegial cohort support available through WEFS.
Please note: WEFS Round 6 has limited places therefore the EOIs will be accepted through a rigorous and competitive process. The WEFS Round 6 stages upon acceptance of EOI will begin in April and end in September 2024. Please ensure that you have discussed workload and leave-related implications in advance before submitting an EOI.
Please contact Badugulang for further information.