Important Information applicable to all Awards

Support for Applicants

Applicants are strongly encouraged to make use of the following support and to seek as much feedback as possible from mentors and relevant colleagues on their draft applications. This is designed to be a supportive and encouraging process.

• The Teaching and Learning Committee holds an Awards Workshop for prospective applicants.
• Designated members of the Teaching and Learning Committee will be available to help candidates preparing their application (NB: Committee members on the judging panel do not provide advice to applicants). Your first point of contact is one of your School Representatives on the Faculty Teaching and Learning Committee.
• Previous Teaching Excellence Award winners may also assist applicants in the writing or preparation of their application.
• Copies of previously successful applications are held by Anne Campbell and may be viewed in her office, during office hours (between 9.00 am and 5.00 pm, Room J2.05, A14 – Main Quadrangle). The Teaching and Learning Committee thanks the authors for granting permission to make their applications available for this purpose.
• The Institute for Teaching and Learning (ITL) website has relevant advice on how to construct a case for a Vice Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Teaching. The Faculty of Arts Awards are closely aligned with this VC’s Award. On the ITL’s site you will find advice about the range of sources or data and how to use this evidence effectively in mounting your case.
• A list of useful scholarly readings in higher education is available here.

For any other advice, please contact the Associate Dean/s of Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Arts:

Application format and submission

• Applications for Awards should follow the format set out in the Guidelines for each category of Award.

Responsibility of Awardees

• Each awardee's name, contact details and areas of expertise will be placed in the Past Teaching Award Winners list on this Faculty of Arts Teaching and Learning website. Awardees may be contacted by other members of academic staff in the Faculty in relation to the preparation of an application, or other matters related to their area of expertise in teaching.
• Permission may be sought from successful applicants to obtain a hard copy of their application for Teaching and Learning Committee archives and for use as an exemplar to support applicants in future years.
• Awardees will be asked to make a short presentation on their teaching at the Award presentation ceremony. This ceremony will normally be held in the semester following that in which the awards are announced.
• At the completion of the teaching initiative project, awardees will submit a final report to the Teaching and Learning Committee, including learning outcomes achieved, results of evaluation and a financial statement itemising project expenditure. Reports on teaching initiatives may then be placed on the Teaching and Learning website as a way of sharing these with other staff.

About Judging Panel, Late Submissions and Appeals Policies

• Judging panels for the Faculty’s Teaching Excellence and Initiative awards are formed as subcommittees of the Faculty’s Teaching and Learning Committee. Each panel is normally comprised of one or more members chosen from the Committee, at least one past award winner, a representative from the Institute for Teaching and Learning, and a representative from another Faculty’s Teaching and Learning Committee. Members of judging panels do not normally provide advice or guidance to candidates who are preparing applications.
• The Judging Panel assesses applications according to the quality and strength of the case for excellence made against each of the criteria. There is presently no fixed quota for determining how many applications for the Excellence in Teaching Awards can be successful. The number of successful Teaching Initiative awards in 2009, however, is limited to a maximum of two.
• Late submissions of applications cannot be accepted for equity and timeline reasons.
• Applications will NOT be returned to the applicant but will be shredded after the judging panel’s decisions are finalised.* Please keep full and complete copies of your application along with the originals of any supporting documents, teaching materials and learning resources.
  [*Successful applicants will sometimes be invited to provide a copy of their application so it can be kept and used, with their permission, by the Teaching and Learning Committee to support prospective applicants].
• Applicants who wish to appeal against the decision of the judging panel should note that appeals will be considered only on the basis of a problem or fault in the application process. The judgement of the panel about the merits of applications relative to the criteria is final and is not subject to appeal.