Centre for Academic and Researcher Development (CARD) Team, led by Prof Rachel Cowen (Faculty of Biology and Health)

Ensuring good teaching in a faculty as large and broad as that of Biology and Health is a challenge that the CARD team rose to with remarkable success. Leading five large-scale programmes covering Doctoral training, New Academics and Fellows, and Pedagogic Development, they revolutionized the Faculty’s approach to professional development and Teaching and Learning development.

A part of this success has come from a focus on assuring accessibility and inclusivity to all the programmes they run. Successfully combining both synchronously and asynchronously delivered courses in an interactive, experiential way through a dedicated CARD website and community blackboard spaces, has resulted in supporting more than 3000 FBMH student and staff participants. To ensure the content is up to scratch and exemplify successful FS and Academic collaboration techniques, the team have partnered with around 40 Academics and External experts who teach and assess across each programme. By combining this partnership with a thorough and accessible approach, CARD has made a significant, sustained contribution to T&L through the development of excellent educators at Faculty, University, and sector level.