Colleagues in the Inspera Digital Exams Team of the Learning and Teaching Development Service (LTDS) invited colleagues from Inspera Assessment to visit Newcastle University for the third year in a row to host an on campus event with our users.
Fiona Orel and Ishan Kolhatkar visited Newcastle on Wednesday 5th November for this year’s ‘Inspera: Sharing Best Practice’ Event.
Our Inspera users were invited to come along to find out updates about using Inspera at Newcastle and upcoming features on the Inspera roadmap. The event is a great opportunity for colleagues to learn about how they can enhance their use of Inspera and ensure best practice. The Inspera Digital Exams Team arranged for some demonstrations on features and functionality listed in the agenda below.
The agenda included:
Welcome and Introduction – An update from the Inspera Digital Exams Team and update from Inspera Assessment around their Roadmap
Inspera demonstration – Rubrics Functionality, Manually Marked Multiple Attempts Assessments and Feedback Release Features
Questions and Discussion – Colleagues submitted their questions for Inspera to answer.
The Learning Enhancement and Technology (LET) Team in the Learning and Teaching Development Service (LTDS) were joined by colleagues from NUMBAS, Library Reading Lists, Digital Adoption, FMS Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Team and representatives from the Artificial Intelligence (AI) in LTDS.
The LET Team were delighted at the turnout on the day and the fantastic conversations that were able to take place. Find out more about the event and what colleagues thought about the event within this blog post.
The Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards aim to raise the status of education at Newcastle University by rewarding individuals and teams who have made a marked impact on the student’s educational experience.
The 2025 winners have now been announced, with five winning submissions out of a very competitive field of nominations.
Congratulations to the 2025 winners of the Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards:
Dr JC Penet
School of Modern Languages
Dr JC Penet receives his award for his innovative and sustained contributions to the field of Modern Languages, in particular within the School’s Translation and Interpreting Section. In recent years, Dr Penet has successfully built a profile as an influential scholar and practitioner in translator education that has benefited Newcastle University, but also students and colleagues more widely through his engagement with coaching and mentoring practices. The awarding panel were impressed with how the winnings from Dr Penet’s previous Vice Chancellor’s award were used to reinvest in training that has led to the development of Translation and Interpreting Studies within the School of Modern Languages.
JC told us “I’m truly honoured to receive the Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Award for a second time. This recognition means a great deal to me, as it reflects my unwavering commitment to co-creating, with our fantastic students and brilliant professional services colleagues (Careers, LTDS), experiential learning opportunities that make education more authentic and situated by connecting students with real-world industry practice. It’s a privilege to support students in developing the critical, analytical and reflective skills they’ll need to thrive in their future working lives. I’ve also found it incredibly rewarding to see how my research into emotional intelligence in translator training has contributed to their growth and wellbeing. Too often, education begins from a place of deficit. It doesn’t have to—and I’d like to believe that my work, both as an educator and a life coach, is helping to challenge this. Change and innovation are never easy, but what a joy it is to help shape empowering learning experiences that allow students to rediscover just how creative and resourceful they truly are.”
Bridging the Gap
Academic Services – Library
Pictured: Lauren Aspery, Liv Jonassen and Sara Bird
The Bridging the Gap Team, who have representation from the Library, the Learning and Teaching Development Service, as well as Undergraduate and Postgraduate Interns, receive their award for their engagement with local schools, prospective students, academic colleagues, and our own first year students, in order to support new students transitioning into their university studies. The awarding panel noted that all of the university’s values are well embedded in the team’s approach, and that the project has visibly strengthened the Newcastle University transition offering. There is also a real possibility for opportunities and expansion for individual, international, and mature students in the future.
The team fed back to us “We are delighted that our ongoing commitment to combat the challenges faced by students transitioning into university has been recognised by this award. It is testament to the meaningful and compassionate collaboration that took place throughout Bridging the Gap, the expertise and dedication of our project team, and the hard work of the talented and insightful students we partnered with, without whom none of this would have been possible.” – Lauren Aspery, Project Co-ordinator
“This award celebrates the long-term partnerships that have formed as a result of this work, and our collective commitment to make our university accessible for all students. Sharing expertise across teams has enabled us to provide high-quality, bespoke support for students who are struggling with their studies in those early stages, setting them up for success in the future.”- Liv Jonassen, Academic Skills Team Manager
“It is a privilege to be acknowledged for our contribution to supporting and empowering students to succeed. Having these resources means we are greater equipped to support students with all of the essential study skills they need to complete their A-Levels and transition smoothly into their degree studies with confidence, furthering our mission to provide equity of access to higher education.” - Sara Bird, Education Outreach Officer
Loyola Study Abroad Centre
International Office
Pictured: Grace Baker and Dina Schwartz
Loyola Study Abroad Centre, part of the International Office, receives their award for significantly enhancing the educational experience of both students and colleagues at Newcastle and Loyola University, Maryland, through its innovative programme of dedicated support. It is evident the team have gone above and beyond to ensure Loyola students are happy during their time at Newcastle. The panel also acknowledges that this huge team effort has been working together for the benefit of the two institutions for 30 years, and that this award is a recognition of that group effort and the history of the centre. In addition, the project’s civil engineering accreditation is very innovative and offers a model for future collaborations
Grace explained “The relationship with Loyola University Maryland is a special and enduring partnership – celebrating 30 years in 2025. I’ve been the Center Manager for ten of those, and it is a role that never grows tired: watching students’ personal transformation each semester, providing support and structure to see them flourish. We’ve also developed innovative programming, which is possible when you work with a forward-thinking partner like Loyola, who also deeply care about the opportunities an international education brings. Thank you for this award, and a special ‘thank you’ to every school and team across the universities that contribute to the success of the Center.”
Initial Teacher Education
School of Education, Communication & Language Science
Pictured: (Left to Right) Fiona Hepton, Christian Kitson, Andrew O’Sullivan, Fred Clark, Jon Haines, Susan O’Hagan, Hayley Hands and Chris Blakey
The Initial Teacher Education team from the school of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, receive this award for successfully leading a rigorous, three-year reaccreditation process following the DfE ITE Market Review (from July 2021 to July 2024). This process required all ITE providers to develop detailed curricula for student teachers and school-based mentors, ensuring that training systematically and consistently drew upon the latest high-quality research on teaching and learning. The team’s leadership resulted in a successful reaccreditation, affirming the University’s status as a leading provider of ITE.
The team commented the following;
Fiona: “We are incredibly proud that the Initial Teacher Education Programme has been recognised with this award. It’s a testament to the dedication of our team and partner schools in preparing the next generation of outstanding teachers for both primary and secondary education. At the heart of our work is a deep commitment to supporting trainees as they begin their journey into the profession, ensuring they are well-equipped to make a meaningful impact in classrooms across our region and beyond. At a time when the education sector faces significant challenges in teacher recruitment and retention, the success of our ITE provision is more important than ever. We are proud to be playing a vital role in attracting and nurturing passionate, skilled teachers who are so urgently needed in our schools.”
Jon: “We are delighted to be recognised for our work in enhancing the quality and reach of our initial teacher education programmes at Newcastle University. As the lead partner in a growing collaboration with Durham University, we are extending our impact even further across the region and are proud not only to deliver training that meets the rigorous standards set by the DfE and Ofsted, but also to provide our local schools with some of the very best Early Career Teachers.”
Fred: We are deeply honoured to receive the Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Award, which recognises the sustained commitment, innovation, and impact of our Initial Teacher Education programmes. This achievement is a testament to the extraordinary dedication of our team, our partner schools, and our collaboration with Durham University in preparing the next generation of outstanding teachers for both primary and secondary education. From navigating rigorous reaccreditation and inspection processes to expanding our regional reach, our team has consistently demonstrated leadership, resilience, and an unwavering focus on quality and equity. We are proud to be shaping a diverse and passionate teaching workforce that is making a real difference in classrooms across our region and beyond.
Business in Action Team
Newcastle University Business School
Pictured: (Left to Right)Jo Clark, Dr Lucy Hatt, Cian O’Sullivan, Jaclyn Wright, Keira Iveson and Steven Sadi. The award will be presented at a winter congregation ceremony.
The Business in Action team, from Newcastle University Business School, receive this award for their transformative work designing and delivering an immersive, experiential learning module for our MBA that bridges the gap between academic theory and real-world practice. The awarding panel found their student-centered offer, and the active learning approach taken, has had an exceptional impact on student learning. The panel also commended the team’s work developing a supportive and collaborative environment for both colleagues and students to flourish within; an approach already being adopted by other programmes within the school.
Jo told us “I am delighted that the work of our team of colleagues has been recognised with the Vice Chancellor’s Education Excellence Award. The Business in Action module, a transformative experience for our MBA students, ensures students have an opportunity, working on live consultancy projects, to apply their academic skills and knowledge in practice. Working together with external learning partner organisations we bring real challenges and business experiences into the classroom. We ensure that this experience benefits not only our students, but also our enthusiastic learning partners, a range of businesses and charities with whom we work on an annual basis, such as, PWC, Lloyds Bank, Aqua Consulting, Charity Groundwork North East and Cumbria and Northumbrian Water. These strategic learning partnerships are made possible by the effective teamworking between our academics and external relations colleagues, plus, alumni relations and careers advisors. Business in Action is both an enjoyable and rewarding experience, so we find that our learning partners are pleased to return year on year to engage with business school MBA students.
Effective team work, internally and externally, underpins all of this activity making it my pleasure to lead the Business in Action, MBA module. This year we were delighted that colleagues from the School of Engineering were able to join us for final presentations. We are looking forward to extending the benefit of working with Newcastle University students by taking an even more collaborative, interdisciplinary, approach in our work with external learning partners in 2026.”
The panel, chaired by Ruth Valentine, PVC Education, were greatly impressed by the wide-ranging impact, variety of initiatives, and creative approaches to teaching and student support demonstrated by all the awardees.
The Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards aim to raise the status of education at Newcastle University by rewarding individuals and teams who have made a marked impact on the student educational experience.
The 2024 winners of the Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards have now been announced, with five winning submissions out of a very competitive field of nominations:
Professor David Rose
School X
Professor Rose receives his award for his innovative and sustained contributions to the field of Philosophy. The awarding panel praised David’s passion and commitment to his students and commended his work in “context based learning”. David’s teaching approaches have also attracted consistently excellent student feedback and have gained him international recognition and multiple teaching awards.
David commented “This award reflects a long development from my early days here at Newcastle and I would like to recognise my peers and students who have helped me to fashion an innovative way for learning to be personal and valuable and mostly to affirm its very social, collective aspect.”
(David will be presented his award at the winter congregation ceremony.)
Dr Jane Nolan
School of Arts and Cultures
Dr Nolan receives her award for her sustained, and much valued, dedication to student learning and support. Jane is commended for identifying student needs when coming to university, and for helping them attain the skills they need to thrive – in education and in the workplace. Jane’s work to build connections between students and alumni was particularly noted by the awarding panel, and reflects her passion and continued commitment to student support.
Jane told us “I am delighted to receive this award. It has been a joy to work with brilliant students, colleagues, alumni and external partners, helping to enrich the educational experience through research- and industry-informed curricula, experiential learning and extra-curricular projects, supporting students during their studies and as they prepare for their futures, and reaching out to our communities through engagement work. It is such an honour, and a highlight in my career as an educator, to have my work recognised by the Vice Chancellor’s Education Excellence award.”
Dr Simon Stone
Dental School
Dr Stone receives his award for his leadership, teaching excellence, and contributions to education across the dental curriculum, with student experience and inclusivity at the forefront of his work. Simon is particularly commended for his work to champion post-Covid return to clinical practice, and for enabling valuable clinical experience for students.
Simon explained “I’m delighted to be able to receive this award. Clinical dental training involves a huge circus of people and resources, in particular the need for a close, cohesive relationship the NHS, many people are unaware that Dental Students play such an active role in delivering healthcare to our community, with roughly 30,000 patient appointments delivered each year. The last 5 years have been particularly challenging with the pandemic forcing the temporary closure of student delivered patient facing activity, the first time this has been the case in our 125 year history. The restart and reshaping of clinical activity within the School was nothing short of exceptional and meant that we were to be in a position to safely return our students to patient facing activity and at the same time grow our portfolio of programmes. I am very proud to have played a key role in this and work alongside an exceptional team of academic and clinical colleagues who help to deliver our programmes.”
Language Resource Centre Team
Pictured: Lina Liu, Andrew Grenfell, Edward Shek and Maka Bekurishvili. Other members of the team include Sarah Crampton and Holly Penal
The Language Resource Centre Team receive their award for demonstrating sustained commitment to student support and service delivery. The awarding panel noted their excellence in supporting equity and cultural understanding, which has had a significant impact on staff and students across the University. The Language Resource Centre’s external engagement and outreach work was also commended, as was their support for learners during Covid.
Andrew Grenfell told us ‘This award is very important for the Language Resource Centre as it recognises the underlying pedagogy of the Centre’s approach to supporting the student learning experience. The award celebrates what is truly a team effort involving the LRC staff and the all the students employed in various roles to deliver an integrated student-centred learning environment, celebrating languages and cultures across the NU campuses and in the NE region as well as in Ukraine.’
Maths Stats and Physics, SAgE + GO Team
Pictured: Joe Matthews, Lucy Bell, Lee Fawcett and Lana Spour
The Maths Stats and Physics “SAgE + GO Team” receive their award for demonstrating sustained commitment to the student learning experience and for encouraging global opportunities. The team were commended for their innovative approaches to student mobility and for making maths more accessible at scale. The support in place for exchange students is particularly noteworthy, as is the development of a global curriculum which is ambitious and future focused.
Lucy explained “We are honoured to be recognised for our ongoing passion and commitment to global opportunities for our students. Our collaboration with staff across the University means we can make student mobility more accessible and truly develop a forward-thinking global curriculum.”
Lee added “It is a privilege to be recognised for our commitment to making global opportunities accessible to all students in the School of Maths, Stats and Physics and the wider SAgE Faculty. The development of short-term mobilities, including field trips, summer schools and virtual exchanges – as well as a range of new opportunities for study abroad – has made this a reality. Of course, none of this would have been possible without close co-operation with our colleagues from the Global Education team.”
The panel, chaired by Ruth Valentine, PVC Education, were extremely impressed with the scale of impact, breadth of activity, and the creative approaches to education and student support demonstrated by all awardees.
As a professional development adviser in the Academic Practice Team at LTDS who support colleagues learning and teaching development as well as the deputy TEAL at Newcastle University who support the NTF and CATE nominations, I attended the 2024 The Association of National Teaching Fellows (ANTF) Symposium at Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK, on 23rd to 24th April, which features two days of sharing and reflections from NTFs and CATEs in relations to wellbeing, Innovation and Impact, Reward and Recognition and Equity and Ethics.
National Teaching Repository
A variety of effective practices and resources have been introduced throughout the conference. For example, the National Teaching Repository, which is an open access online searchable database where tried and tested strategies ‘that work’ can be housed and harvested. Contributing and sharing your effective teaching and research via the platform means effective ways to Measure the impact of practice as well as making the resources more discoverable, shareable & citable as you will Attain a unique DOI for each item uploaded.
The National Learning and Teaching Focused Network
Another example is The National Learning and Teaching Focused Network, which connects colleagues in learning and teaching focused roles across the UK Higher Education sector. Through a one-hour workshop, presenters’ first-hand experiences were shared, and we discussed some common concerns and feelings among staff members who have a learning and teaching focused role, that in being learning and teaching focused, staff can feel misunderstood and like they do not belong. They often don’t know how to tell their “story” for promotion and because these pathways are relatively new and often the guidance from HR and senior staff can be lacking or at best narrow and restrictive. Yet these colleagues bring a richness and diversity to their institutions, but this is often rarely recognised. As a group, we explored the breadth of roles and activities of staff on learning and teaching focused pathways (The photo below shows some examples of the wide range of roles we discussed as a group).
Raising the profile of professional service staff with teaching and learning responsibilities
One of the important and timely discussion I engaged with was a workshop exploring potential ways to raise the profile of professional service staff with teaching and learning responsibilities. Within the higher education sector there are a significant number of teaching and learning professionals employed on non-academic contracts. This could include Learning Developers, Librarians, Technicians or Learning Technologists, for example. However, despite the important role these individuals play in the student learning experience, they are particularly underrepresented in institutional nominations for the NTFS: only 5.8% of NTFS nominees in 2023, 5.1% in 2022 and 10.6% between 2018-2022. Questions were raised and discussed, which also are important for professional services colleagues who are considering NTF and CATE applications as well as for those institutional stakeholders who support such applicants.
For example:
What are the range of professional service positions with teaching and learning. responsibilities?
Where might professional service staff with teaching and learning responsibilities be based within a university?
What are examples of professional service staff with teaching and learning responsibilities influencing institutional teaching practices within your institutions?
How can the profile of professional service staff with teaching and learning responsibilities be showcased to the institutional Teaching Excellence Award Leads (TEALs) who support and submit the nominations?
How can teaching and learning evaluation be inclusive of professional services to support demonstration of impact?
Mapping scholarship
A highlight of the conference was an interactive workshop on Making scholarship Inclusive, in which we discussed a key notion and concept, i.e., ‘scholarship’, with the growing emphasis on ensuring a sound evidence base for education, arising from ‘scholarship’ activities. Based on presenters’ recent ‘Mapping Scholarship’ project demonstrated that some staff are uncertain about what ‘counts’ as scholarship, whilst nevertheless undertaking activities that relate to education, that are or could be public, evaluated, and impactful, and thus are easily included under broad definitions of scholarship. Kern et al.’s (2015) Dimensions and Activities Related to Teaching Model (DART, see Figure below) proved immensely useful for stimulating discussion of the nature of scholarship. We discussed and evaluated the potential limitations of this model, and considered a proposed model that is both inclusive and useful in stimulating scholarship activity.
If you are interested in finding out more about how to get your teaching recognised, please go to the page to explore a potential route and contact APT if you have any questions.
The fund (formerly the University Education Development Fund) provides grants of up to £10,000 to support the development of new approaches to learning and teaching across Newcastle University.
Two strands of funding are available:
Strand A – applications up to £2500. Projects can be specifically focussed within an individual academic unit, or across multiple areas as appropriate to the project.
Strand B – applications up to £10,000. Projects must involve collaboration across academic units and/or services and have potential benefits that are applicable beyond a single school or academic unit.
Chaired by the PVC Education, the fund offers a fantastic opportunity to propose and deliver projects with real benefit to student education. Applications should further the aims and key themes of the Education Strategy.
Venue/Time: 21 June 2023, University of Manchester
Network: AdvanceHE_GTA Developers Network
Who: Dangeni, Professional Development Adviser, LTDS
In the ever-evolving landscape of higher education, Postgraduates who teach, including Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) play a crucial role in shaping the academic experience of countless students. These passionate educators form the backbone of university classrooms, bringing fresh perspectives and knowledge to enhance the learning environment. My role as a Professional Development Adviser at LTDS involves delivering workshops to postgraduates who teach at Newcastle University, supporting their professional development through the various modules and pathways we offer, e.g. ILTHE and ELTS.
I had the opportunity to attend the Graduate Teaching Assistants Network event at the University of Manchester in June, which brought together researchers and practitioners from different UK universities to share insights and support each other in promoting and developing GTA support. This blog post summarises the highlights and reflections from this enriching experience.
Prior to the event, the organisers facilitated the sharing of materials, resources, ideas and approaches related to GTA development from across the institutions, which can be widely disseminated to various key stakeholders working with GTAs. For example, a practical guide New to Teaching Geography, which offers a starting point for graduate teaching assistants, teaching fellows and demonstrators. Another great example is around measuring the effective teaching through designing a Teaching Observation Form based on undergraduate feedback. These resources already and will benefit GTAs by unpacking the hidden curriculum of teaching and providing practical suggestions for GTAs to take away and implement in their own contexts; it’s also valuable for practitioners like me to reflect on and embed the effective and good practice in our current provision.
What happened on the day
The session began by reflecting on our roles and perspectives, e.g. where we work centrally or in a department, in an academic contract or as professional service staff, is supporting GTAs a core element of our role or something we do in addition to our day-to-day work, understanding that institutional differences and the different roles we play in supporting PgRs with teaching responsibilities require more in-depth discussion and frequent communication to share effective practices and reflect together on potential challenges.
We had key themes running through the day-long programme, such as:
Supporting GTAs within departments, faculties and disciplines across institutions.
The new PSF and its implications for accredited programmes.
Developments in GTA professional learning.
As our Academic Practice Team is working on the reaccreditation, the second theme provide helpful information regarding support and guidance, such as Advance HE PSF 2023 Associate Fellowship Guidance, Calibration events and Accreditation Policy 2023 (and guidance). The key changes were highlighted regarding D1, Associate Fellow, i.e., for individuals whose practice enables them to evidence some Dimensions. Effectiveness of practice in teaching and/or support of learning is demonstrated through evidence of:
D1.1. Use of appropriate Professional Values, including at least V1 and V3
D1.2 Application of appropriate Core Knowledge, including at least K1, K2 and K3
D1.3 Effective and inclusive practice in at least two of the five Areas of Activity
Inclusion and EDI were mentioned, highlighted and discussed throughout the day, including a workshop on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion by colleagues from the University of Sheffield. This training material is a practical tool for GTAs and us to explore prejudice and discrimination and describe how it can occur in everyday teaching and learning contexts.
My presentation
I presented and shared how we support GTAs through formal programmes and a recently established informal community building event at Newcastle University. In running ILTHE and ELTS and gathering feedback from participants, we found that workshop participants wanted the opportunity to continue to engage with teaching practice and develop their teaching skills after the workshops. This online community has been created based on my teaching experiences as an international GTA and my previous research projects, which looked at GTA, peer-mentoring and researcher development.
What did I think of the day?
The day was packed with insightful, exciting and innovative presentations from colleagues and GTAs from different institutions. I also had many useful resources to take away and great discussions with colleagues to reflect on. Thank you for taking the time to read this GTA-themed blog post. Please get in touch at apt.lts@newcastle.ac.uk if you’d like to chat about our pathways and your practice!
If you are interested in finding out more about the modules and pathways we offer here at Newcastle, check out the following links:
I am a Professional Development Adviser in the Academic Practice Team at LTDS. My teaching and research focus broadly on the teaching and learning provision in the wider context of the internationalisation of higher education.
I am particularly interested in research and practices around international students’ access, engagement and success in postgraduate taught (PGT) and postgraduate research (PGR) settings.
We are pleased to share our Digital Assessment Training Programme for 2023-24. Our training sessions are delivered as webinars via Microsoft Teams.
Inspera Assessment (the university system for centrally supported digital exams) is supported by the Learning and Teaching Development Service with a range of training options open to all staff.
Follow the links below to find out more about each session and to book onto individual sessions via the University’s elements system.
LTDS are running an online workshop Evidencing Teaching Excellence for Promotion on 7th September from 2-3pm.
This workshop is for any member of academic staff thinking of applying for promotion in whole, or in part on the basis of their teaching (whether they are on Teaching and Research or Teaching and Scholarship contracts).
The workshop is likely to be of particular interest to academic staff who are, or may be, intending to make an application to the 2023-24 or 2025-26 promotion rounds.
