Education Awards

Northumbria Distinguished Teaching Awards

The Northumbria Distinguished Teaching Awards (NDTAs, previously Distinguished Teaching Fellowships-DTF) celebrate excellent teaching and recognise outstanding practice that supports learning and the student experience. They are open to all academic and processional services colleagues. We particularly encourage applications from individuals and teams whose practice demonstrates excellence, positive impact, and is aligned to the principles embedded within Northumbria’s new Curriculum Excellence Framework, including:

• Experiential Learning Enriched by Research,
• Inclusive Education underpinned by principles of Universal Design for Learning,
• Quality Enhancement and Student Success,
• Education for Sustainable Development,
• Student Partnership, Wellbeing, and Celebrating Achievements.

In addition to celebrating and recognise recent contributions, engagement with these awards helps to prepare colleagues for future application to external awards, such as the Advance HE National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) and Collaborative Awards for Teaching Excellence (CATE).

Colleagues can find further information here.

Names of colleagues who have been awarded since 2022 are shown below:

Awarded 2026-27

Northumbria Distinguished Teaching Awards: Highly Commended 2026-27

Individual Awards

Dr Paul Dresser   Humanities and Social Sciences.	Paul leads Northumbria's policing education provision, supporting more than 5,000 student police officers through to completion. His work spans co-constructed curriculum and module design, new approaches to End Point Assessment, successful regulatory inspections and audits, and delivery of CPD for colleagues inside and outside the University.
Sarah Morse   Northumbria Law School.	Sarah's Street Law module is public legal education in action: Northumbria law students plan and deliver lessons to high-school pupils, reaching an estimated 2,500 young people since 2017. Enquiry-based, authentic and creative by design, the module has grown strongly and continues to attract excellent student feedback.

Collaborative Award

Briana Fahey and Stephen Boddy   School of Geography and Natural Sciences

Briana and Stephen have developed neuroscience Directed Learning Activities for the St George's University MD programme as interactive clinical cases in Qualtrics. Branching logic, retrieval practice, immediate feedback and adaptive progression were used in place of traditional PowerPoint slides to enhance clinical reasoning and engagement.

Awarded 2025-26

Dr Liam T. Pearson-Noseworthy, Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation
Dr Lee Shepherd, Psychology
Dr Colin Richardson, Marketing, Operations and Systems
Chris Warnock, Social Work Education & Community Wellbeing
Dr Lesley McIntyre, Architecture and Built Environment
Dr Paul Cook, Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation
Dr Carly Guest, Sociology
Dr Paul McKeown, Law
Dr Catherine Glover, Design, Arts and Creative Industries

Awarded 2024-25

Dr Tadhg Blommerde, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Strategy
Dr David Hart, Marketing, Operations and Systems

Awarded 2023-24

Dr Elisabeth Griffiths, Law
Dr Michael Jeffries, Geography & Environmental Sciences
Dr Michael Elsdon, Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering
Dr Matthew Blacklock, Mechanical & Construction Engineering
Dr Kellie Forbes-Simpson, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Strategy
Dr Martyn Hudson, Arts
Dr Biddy Casselden, Computer & Information Sciences

Awarded 2022-23

Dr Stephany Veuger, Applied Sciences
Dr Victoria Roper, Law
Dr Helen King, Geography and Environmental Sciences
Dr Kirstin Mulholland, Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing
Prof Daniel Laqua, Humanities
Andrea Couture, Architecture and Built Environment
Dr Rick Hayman, Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation
Dr Rachael Chapman, Social Sciences
Dr Emma Thirkell, Leadership and HRM
Dr Helen Hooper, Applied Sciences
Mark Kirk, Architecture and Built Environment
Dr Kirstin Mulholland (lead), Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing
Julie Trueman, Design

 

Education Enhancement Projects

Northumbria’s competitive Education Enhancement Projects focus on developing an educational base to implement Northumbria’s Education Strategy and University Strategic Ambitions, with a focus on ‘Powering an inclusive economy’ through ‘transformative experiential learning, building students’ skills and social capital’, and ‘Driving Social Mobility’ by ‘eliminating gaps in post-study success through education tailored to students’ needs’ (University Strategy 2030). 

Projects focus on exploring the practice of Northumbria’s distinctive pedagogy of experiential and authentic enquiry based learning, and the promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion. This includes authentic enquiry-based learning through clinics and live projects, simulated learning, placements and internships, service learning and volunteering, vertically integrated learning, interdisciplinary learning, and other forms of experiential learning that engage students actively with their learning, promoting Northumbria graduate attributes and a sense of community, based on equality, diversity and inclusion. 

A competitive process operates each year to award colleagues with funding to progress their projects. 

Northumbria staff can find out more about the scheme by following this link.

Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE)

Advance HE’s Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) recognises and celebrates collaborative work that has had a demonstrable impact on teaching and learning. CATE awardees join a national community of like-minded professionals who are passionate about collaborative approaches to teaching excellence.

Northumbria University run an annual internal process to support colleagues towards a CATE submission. Colleagues can find more information on applying for a CATE here.

CATE Attainment:

The following Northumbria colleagues have successfully attained a CATE Award; in some instances this may have been whilst working at another institution.  

 

National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS)

he purpose of Advance HE’s National Teaching Fellowship (NTF) Scheme is to recognise, reward and celebrate individuals who have made an outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession.   

Northumbria University run an annual internal process to support colleagues towards NTFS submission. Colleagues can find more information on applying for a NTFS here.

NTF Attainment:

A number of current Northumbria University Staff have successfully attained an NTF Award; in some instances this may have been whilst working at another institution. They include: 

 

Northumbria run an internal process annually to support colleagues towards NTF submissions. Colleagues can find out more here.