Advance HE Fellowship (AFHEA/FHEA/SFHEA)

Important Advance HE Fellowship Information

Individuals who have been contacted by CAD regarding submitting their Advance HE Fellowship application, either at Associate Fellow, Fellow, or Senior Fellow to the University’s Professional Recognition Panel, must ensure their application and two supporting statements are submitted to cad@abdn.ac.uk  before Friday 26^th January 2024. This is the final application opportunity against the UKPSF 2011 before the University transitions to the newly launched Professional Standards Framework (PSF) 2023.

For this application deadline, individuals must use the UKPSF 2011 and MUST NOT reference aspects of the PSF 2023  such as Professional Values V5. Any in-text citations of the incorrect framework will result in your application being returned.

Ensure that you use this framework, UKPSF 2011: UK Professional Standards Framework.pdf

Further information for staff planning to seek and build a case for Advance HE Fellowship against the new Professional Standards Framework will be provided in Spring 2024.

Advance HE  Fellowship application materials                                  

The University of Aberdeen offers two routes for its staff to become professionally recognised by Advance HE; a taught route and an individual recognition route. If you wish to apply via the taught route, here are further details.  If you wish to apply via the individual recognition route, we strongly recommend that you attend one of our short (one hour) rolling monthly information sessions before you start writing your fellowship application. As a prerequisite and so that we can tailor our support, we kindly request you complete this form at least 24 hours prior to the session. Please register to attend one of the information sessions by logging into the Institutional course booking system with your University log in details.

IMPORTANT:  ALL INTENDING APPLICANTS FOR FELLOWSHIP (ALL CATEGORIES) PLEASE READ

Following a series of updates to the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) in January 2023, we are currently in a transition period between the existing UKPSF and the revised Professional Standards Framework.  Further details of both frameworks can be found here, and you can watch and listen to an overview of the updates in a conversation between two of the University’s Educational Development staff here.

Staff who are currently drafting their Associate Fellow, Fellow or Senior Fellow application to meet the next submission deadline of 13th Sept 2023 will not be affected by the transition arrangements; they will continue to align their practices to the UKPSF (2011) and submit their applications or complete the accredited courses (PGCert/PLTHE/DTOC) as planned. Note that following the September 13th deadline, we will only accept applications that use the revised PSF. Full details will be provided during the monthly briefing sessions provided by the Centre.

If you are applying via the individual recognition route, the following information is available to help you.

1. Submission process and deadlines for assessment panels. Please submit applications to Centre for Academic Development, cad@abdn.ac.uk. All applications submitted via the individual recognition route are assessed by a panel of trained assessors.  Assessment panels are held three times per calendar year, with applications submitted six weeks prior to the panel meetings. The next submission deadline for applications will be confirmed in Spring 2024.

2.  Which category of recognition is right for me? Before attending you may wish to consider to use this simple flow diagram to ascertain whether you have sufficient experience and evidence accumulated to apply for Advance HE Associate Fellowship (AFHEA), Fellowship (FHEA) or Senior Fellowship (SFHEA).

Advance HE Fellowship - select your category

3.  Having selected your category, your application is made up of two parts:

a)  Account of Professional Practice (APP).  The exact nature of this will depend on the category under which you choose to apply (Associate, Fellow or Senior Fellow). This must be submitted using a template provided in the drop-down menu below. 

b)  Supporting Statements.  These should be provided by staff who know your teaching and can comment on it knowledgeably. This might therefore involve your peers rather than your Head of School/other senior person. Whilst it is no longer a requirement, it is very helpful if at least one referee holds recognition by Advance HE themselves. These must be submitted using a template provided in the drop-down menu below. 

4.  Support whilst writing your application. The following writing guide has been produced by the University of Aberdeen to help you complete your application for Advance HE Associate Fellowship (AFHEA) or Fellowship (FHEA): Associate and Fellow guidance 2018. We suggest you have this alongside you as you write your fellowship application. 

5. Contact.  Please email the Centre (cad@abdn.ac.uk) if you have any questions or or if you would like to know more about our monthly information sessions on starting your felllowship application for Advance HE Associate Fellowship (AFHEA), Fellowship (FHEA) and Senior Fellowship (SFHEA).