New initiatives launched to support teaching excellence

These include: 

• A revamp of the university’s ITL Fellowships scheme to give Fellows more time to focus on a teaching and learning project.  

• New contributor groups to give colleagues an opportunity to input their expertise into a fellowship project. 

• An Innovation and Scholarship Fund to support colleagues working on smaller projects and initiatives in teaching and learning. 

ITL Fellowships 

ITL Fellowships provide you with the time, focus and support to work on a teaching and learning project which will lead to a lasting change that improves student experience or outcomes (directly or indirectly) across the university.  

The revised ITL Fellowships will be appointed on a 0.4 FTE for a two-year secondment to work on a teaching and learning project in one of the University’s priority areas. Three priority areas have been identified:  

1. Community-engaged learning: education that has mutual benefit with the community (also referred to as service learning)
2. The teaching-research nexus: how our research can inform our teaching, and our teaching can inform our research.
3. Curriculum interventions for student success: what can we do to address differential attainment and completion?  

This opportunity is open to all staff, including academic, Professional Services and Technical Services colleagues. Joint Fellowships (e.g. 0.4FTE shared by two colleagues) will also be considered. 

• Find out more about the ITL Fellowships 

ITL Fellowships – contributor groups 

Colleagues who would like to be involved in the Fellowship projects are invited to a series of engagement sessions to contribute your thoughts, insight and expertise to help shape the requirements for each project.   

There will be one engagement session per project: 

• Tuesday, 5 November, 11am-12.30pm - Book to attend the Curriculum interventions for student success engagement session

• Wednesday, 6 November, 9.30-11am - Book to attend the Teaching-Research Nexus engagement session 

• Wednesday, 13 November, 1.30-3pm - Book to attend the Community-engaged learning engagement session 

Colleagues who are unable to attend the session are invited to contribute online via Mentimeter. This will be open for contributions for two weeks, closing on Thursday 7 November.  

• Share your ideas, insight and expertise for future ITL Fellowship Projects - closes Thursday 7 November 

If you would like to input on any of the themes but are unable to attend the sessions or contribute to the Menti, please contact the Teaching Excellence team. 

The Innovation and Scholarship Fund supports colleagues working on smaller teaching and learning projects and initiatives. Colleagues can apply for funding of up to £2,500 per project, providing financial backing for ideas that can enhance our educational practices. 

This fund is designed to encourage scholarship and dissemination across the breadth of our teaching community. Applications will open from 1 November 2024.   

• Innovation and Scholarship Fund 

More information

• Contact Holly Dewsnip (teaching.learning@manchester.ac.uk) or (holly.dewsnip@manchester.ac.uk)