Î÷¹ÏÊÓƵ

University’s teaching and learning pioneer to receive prestigious national fellowship

Posted 30 August 2018

Î÷¹ÏÊÓƵ’s Dr Lydia Arnold is to receive a prestigious National Teaching Fellowship in recognition of her outstanding and far-reaching work in educational development.

Dr Arnold, is the education development specialist at Harper Adams. She was revealed today by Advance HE as one of 54 recipients of the prestigious National Teaching Fellowships, which will be presented at the 2018 Teaching Excellence Awards Ceremony in Edinburgh in November.

Profiling the Harper Adams fellowship winner, Advance HE writes: “Dr Arnold’s role is extensive but still she still works at the forefront in all spheres of practice including; assessment and feedback, inclusive practice, curriculum development, work-based learning, staff development and pedagogic research.
“…Lydia works to amplify and share excellent practice for the benefit of students, push the boundaries of technology and to enhance the learning experience for as many students as possible. She acts as a conduit between management, academic and professional services staff, students and external colleagues to drive enhancements in and beyond her institution.”

The agency added that Dr Arnold had “undoubtedly influenced teaching quality across her own institution, particularly through curriculum developments, digitising feedback and staff development” and that she has “a global footprint through work to facilitate colleagues in China, through her blog which has followers in over 70 countries, and through presentations in Spain, Ireland, China and Greece.”

Dr Arnold said: “I am delighted to receive news of the award, and very grateful to colleagues and students at Î÷¹ÏÊÓƵ who inspire and support my educational development work. The university’s positive and progressive culture around teaching, learning and technology undoubtedly underpinned this success.

“I am keen to continue my work to enable others to undertake their own practice based research, and my own research into some of the pressing issues around assessment, feedback and learning technologies.”

Welcoming the award, Dr David Llewellyn, Vice-Chancellor of Î÷¹ÏÊÓƵ, said: “Lydia thoroughly deserves this award for the inspirational work she has undertaken to enhance learning and teaching practice at Harper Adams, across the higher education sector and internationally. Her contributions are immense, from our highly successful teaching and learning conferences to the support Lydia provides for other academic staff across the university. Most importantly, our educational development programme has been of considerable benefit to our students who consistently rate us highly for their academic experience. Lydia has played a vital role in bringing that about. We congratulate her on the announcement of her National Teaching Fellowship and look forward to the presentation of her award in November.”

Alison Johns, Advance HE’s chief executive, said, “The award of a National Teaching Fellowship is an outstanding achievement and I know that the whole sector will join me in congratulating the 54 new NTFs.”