Funding – Learning and Teaching @ Newcastle Blog

11 October, 202311 October, 2023

Applications for the Education Enhancement Fund are now open!

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.

Application deadline for Semester 1:

Applications must be sent to educationdevfund@newcastle.ac.uk by 12 noon (UK time) on Monday 20 November 2023.

Full information, guidance notes, and the application forms are available on the Learning and Teaching @ Newcastle website. 

For queries please contact educationdevfund@newcastle.ac.uk. 

7 July, 20237 July, 2023

Congratulations to the 2023 winners of the Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards

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 2023 winners of the Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards have now been announced, with two winning submissions out of a very competitive field of nominations:

Dr Carys Watts
School of Biomedical, Nutritional and Sport Sciences

Dr Watts receives her award for her sustained, and much valued, record of achievement and dedication to student learning and support. She is commended for her excellent work on the Support to Study, Virtual Exchange and Study Abroad initiatives, and more generally for her collegiality and passion for teaching.

Carys commented “I am delighted to receive this award and to be recognised for progressing student mobility, co-creativity and enterprise activities. Working with some incredible colleagues and teaching a diverse student community keeps me motivated, reflective and innovative in my approach to education”.

Rosalind Beaumont
School X

Rosalind receives her award for her record of innovation and creativity in support of student learning and staff development, both within her School and Faculty and more widely across the University. She is praised for her teaching excellence, dedication to sustainability, and for her support and contributions to the University’s Professional Standards Framework scheme.

Rosalind remarked “It’s an honour to be recognised by my peers for my work with both students and staff in different educational contexts at Newcastle over the last 15+ years. I’m here through a lot of determination, luck, and the countless conversations with colleagues and students which have helped shape me into the educator and colleague I am today. Thank you to all of you who have been part of my development so far – there’s always more to do, so let’s get on with it!”

The panel, chaired by Ruth Valentine (Interim 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.

For more information about the awards, and how to apply next year, please visit the Learning and Teaching @ Newcastle website

8 October, 202229 November, 2022

University Education Development Fund

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: 

Up to £2,500 for projects focused within an individual academic unit through the Responsive strand. 
Up to £10,000 for projects with collaboration across academic units through the Strategic strand.

Application deadlines for 2022-23:

Friday 5 May 2023

Full information and guidance notes available online.  For queries please contact educationdevfund@newcastle.ac.uk. 

9 February, 20229 February, 2022

Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards

The Vice-Chancellor’s Education Excellence Awards 2022 are now open for applications. These awards aim to raise the status of education at Newcastle University by rewarding those individuals and teams who make a marked impact on enhancing our student educational experience.

Completed applications should be submitted to LTDS@ncl.ac.uk before 12.00pm Wednesday 13 April 2022.

The awards fall into two categories:

Individual award
Team award

The award is open to all members of staff, at Newcastle, NUIS, NUMed and NUL, whose work enhances the student educational experience. In addition, applications are welcome from staff of associated employers with direct and substantive involvement in the delivery of the student experience at Newcastle; for example, staff of INTO Newcastle University.

Groups of colleagues who work closely together are invited to apply for the team award.

Full information about the awards and the application process is available on the Learning and Teaching website.

Contact for queries: LTDS@ncl.ac.uk

8 February, 20229 February, 2022

Do you have an idea that would deliver real benefits to students education?

Apply to the University Education Development Fund by the 6 May 2022, 17:00

Two strands of funding are available:   

Up to £2,500 for projects focused within an individual academic unit, or across multiple areas through the  Responsive  strand.

Up to  £10,000  for projects with collaboration across academic units through the Strategic  strand.

Chaired by the PVC Education this fund support projects in the development of new approaches to learning and teaching and to enable their dissemination across the University.  

Application deadline for 2021-22: Friday 6 May, 2022, 17:00  

Full information and guidance notes available online.   

Contact for queries  educationdevfund@newcastle.ac.uk.  

25 October, 202125 October, 2021

University Education Development Fund

The University Education Development Fund supports colleagues to undertake projects with real benefit to students’ education at Newcastle University. 

Two strands of funding are available: 

Up to £2,500 for projects focused within an individual academic unit, or across multiple areas through the Responsive strand. 
Up to £10,000 for projects with collaboration across academic units through the Strategic strand.

Chaired by the PVC Education this fund support projects which further the aims and key themes of the Education Strategy and applications in the areas of UN Sustainable Development Goals and decolonising the curriculum agenda would be welcome.

Application deadline for 2021-22: 

Friday 19 November 2021, 17:00

Full information and guidance notes available online.  Contact for queries  educationdevfund@newcastle.ac.uk. 

9 September, 202110 November, 2021

National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) and Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) : University application process

Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence and National Teaching Fellowship logos

The internal call for 2022 NTF and CATE nominations has now ended (deadline for nominations was Wednesday 10 November 2021 at 12.00 noon).

Application to be an institutional NTF nominee

Nominations will be considered at a panel meeting in November, chaired by the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education and consisting of current Newcastle NTFs and members of the Learning and Teaching Development Service. All higher education providers are eligible to enter three nominations to NTF. Following this panel meeting the 3 successful nominees will work with NTF mentors to develop their full claim submitted to Advance HE in March 2022.

Application to be an institutional CATE nominee

Nominations will be considered at a panel meeting in November, chaired by the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education and consisting of current Newcastle NTF/CATE winners and members of the Learning and Teaching Development Service. All higher education providers are eligible to enter one team that can clearly demonstrate having an impact on teaching and learning through collaboration. Following this panel meeting the successful team will work with CATE mentors to develop their full claim submitted to Advance HE in March 2022.

For further information get in touch with LTDS@ncl.ac.uk

23 March, 20211 April, 2021

University Education Devleopment Fund

There’s still time to apply to the  University Education Development Fund  which supports staff to undertake projects with real benefit to students’ education at Newcastle University. 

Two strands of funding are available: 

Up to £2,500 for projects focused within an individual academic unit, or across multiple areas through the Responsive strand. 
Up to £10,000 for projects with collaboration across academic units through the Strategic strand.

Application deadline for 2020-21:  Deadline extended to Wednesday 28 April, 17:00

Attend an Education Development Fund workshop or a webinar to find out more:  Education Development Fund webinar Thursday 25 March 2020, 15:00-15:30 

Full information and guidance notes available online. 

19 February, 202119 February, 2021

NUTELA Small Grants Fund

The 20/21 Small Grants Fund is now open for applications.

Apply for up to £500 to explore and embed technology-enhanced practices into your teaching.

Perhaps you have an idea for your teaching that uses technology, but need some funding to support it or maybe you know of interesting technology enhanced learning at another institution and would like to be able to explore it further.

Applications are invited for a wide range of activities which enable you to explore and disseminate ideas and practices, and share these with colleagues at Newcastle through the NUTELA network.

Applications for up to £500 are welcomed, and applications will be on a rolling basis, rather than at set points in the academic year so you can apply whenever you are ready.

For more information about the fund, what it can be used for and to apply, please see the NUTELA Small Grant Fund Application and Guidance Notes.

Alternatively submit your application online here

Any queries should be sent to nutelaops@newcastle.ac.uk

13 March, 20201 April, 2020

Examining Different Learners’ Development of Critical Learning Skills: University Education Development Fund

Dr Lana Liu, Newcastle University Business School and Dr Mei Lin, School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences.

Critical thinking is one of the core skills for academic success but can be one of the biggest challenges for students studying one-year taught masters programmes.

Dr Lana Liu, Newcastle University Business School and Dr Mei Lin, School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences set out to explore how critical thinking can be enhanced in their most recent project, funded by the University Education Development Fund:

Examining Different Learners’ Development of Critical Learning Skills in Postgraduate Taught Programmes: A Comparative Study in MSc Accounting, Finance and Strategic Investment and in MA Applied Linguistics and TESOL

This collaborative project is well underway with surveys and first round of interviews with postgraduate taught students nearly completed and evaluation of the transcripts about to begin. We caught up with Lana and Mei to find out more:

What motivated you to begin your project?

We teach on Masters courses in quite different subject areas. Over the years we both identified common challenges in terms of lack of critical thinking our students were demonstrating when they started their course. This may arise from our expectation, as we were assuming a high level of critical thinking skills because of our set entry criteria to masters programmes. However it became clear that not all students were working at the same level. This was evident from in class discussions, the questions students were asking and in some cases we directly asked students about their understanding of critical thinking at both the start and end of their course. This has led both of us to investigate underlying issues.