Skip navigation to main content

You are here: UNE Home / Teaching and Learning Centre / OLT @ UNE / OLT Teaching Awards

OLT Teaching Awards

Teaching Awards celebrate a group of the nation’s most outstanding university teachers in their fields. Teaching Awards give recognition to teachers (individuals and teams) renowned for the excellence of their teaching, who have outstanding presentation skills and who have made a broad and deep contribution to enhancing the quality of learning and teaching in higher education.

In 2013 the OLT is offering up to 16 awards across eight categories, with prize value of $25,000 each.

The Prime Minister’s Award for Australian University Teacher of the Year is the premier university teaching award. The Strategic Advisory Committee will select on recipient for the Prime Minister’s Award from the recipients of Teaching Awards. The Prime Minister’s Award is given to an academic with an exceptional record of advancing student learning, educational leadership and scholarly contribution to learning and teaching.

In selecting the recipient, particular attention will be given to the evidence provided for Selection criterion five: Scholarly activities that have influenced and enhanced learning and teaching (see below). In 2013 there is one prize with the value of $50,000.

Categories

There are eight categories of Teaching Awards: five discipline categories, the Neville Bonner Award for Indigenous Education, an early career category and an annual priority area. The eight Teaching Award categories are:

  1. Biological Sciences, Health and Related Studies (including Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, Medicine, Nursing, etc.)
  2. Early Career
  3. Humanities and the Arts
  4. Law, Economics, Business and Related Studies
  5. Neville Bonner Award/s for Indigenous Education
  6. Physical Sciences and Related Studies (including Architecture, Building and Planning, Engineering, Computing and Information Science)
  7. Social Sciences (including Education)
  8. The Priority Area for 2013: High impact strategies for progression, retention and attainment.

People teaching in new or multi-disciplinary fields may find that their nomination does not easily fit into the above categories. Nominees must identify which category they consider most appropriate and include in the written statement why the new discipline/field has developed or the advantage of a multi-disciplinary approach, as appropriate.

It is anticipated that Teaching Awards will be distributed across the eight categories, although the pattern of distribution will ultimately be determined by the quality of nominations. The Standing Committee has the discretion to consider nominations under categories other than those nominated, but only after obtaining consent from the nominees.

Selection Criteria

All nominees for Teaching Awards will be assessed on the evidence they provide in relation to the following five criteria:

  1. Approaches to teaching that influence, motivate and inspire students to learn
  2. Development of curricula and resources that reflect a command of the field
  3. Approaches to assessment and feedback that foster independent learning
  4. Respect and support for the development of students as individuals
  5. Scholarly activities that have influenced and enhanced learning and teaching

In assessing nominations against the five criteria, the Committee will take into account the:

  1. extent to which the claims for excellence are supported by formal and informal evaluation
  2. extent of creativity, imagination or innovation, irrespective of whether the approach involves traditional learning environments or technology-based developments
  3. information contained in Student Feedback Questionnaires, references and selected teaching materials submitted by the nominee.

The five criteria will be given equal consideration by the Standing Committee.

The Office for Learning and Teaching may contact nominees and/or referees for clarification and/or further information.

Eligibility for nomination

  1. All nominations must relate to teaching activities in higher education.
  2. Nomination is open to individuals and teams with teaching or teaching/research appointments (full-time or fractional, continuing or contract) in eligible institutions.
  3. Both team and individual nominations are encouraged and teams may be of any size.  If a team is larger than five members a team name should be provided.
  4. UNE may nominate up to eight individuals or teams for Teaching Awards each year, and may include up to two nominations in any one category.
  5. Nominee/s may be included in only one nomination in any year except if a nominee forms part of a team nomination but is not the lead nominee.
  6. The Neville Bonner Award for Indigenous Education is open to Indigenous and non-Indigenous academic staff; nominees must demonstrate their contribution to Indigenous education.
  7. The Early Career Award is open to staff with no more than five years’ experience teaching in a higher education setting (this should be interpreted as five cumulative calendar years and includes all tutoring, part-time teaching, and teaching at other higher education institutions). The Standing Committee will consider the career stage of nominees in this category when assessing criterion 5.
  8. Previously unsuccessful nominees (Carrick Award, ALTC Award or Australian Award for University Teaching) are eligible for renomination.
  9. With the exception of Early Career recipients or members of a team, previous Award recipients (Carrick Award, ALTC Award or Australian Award for University Teaching) are ineligible for renomination.
  10. Early Career Teaching Award recipients are eligible for renomination in a different category five years after their Early Career Award.
  11. Previous recipients of Awards are eligible to renominate if they are a member of a team and not the lead nominee; the team nomination should be for teaching or programs that do not substantially replicate the original Award or program.
  12. Members of teams that have received Awards are eligible to renominate; the nomination should be for teaching or programs that do not substantially replicate the original Award or program.
  13. Teaching Awards and Citations are considered distinct Award types. Nomination for, or receipt of, a Citation does not affect eligibility for nomination for a Teaching Award.  However, a recipient of a Teaching Award (Carrick Award, ALTC Award or Australian Award for University Teaching) is not eligible to subsequently apply for a Citation.

UNE processes, support and timelines

1. Potential applicants must submit an Expression of Interest to olt-admin@une.edu.au by 5pm on 11 February, 2013.

2. EOI's will be evaluated by UNE OLT Grants and Awards Committee ('the Committee') before 18 February, 2013. The Committee will determine which applicants will receive institutional support to develop their applications for submission. All applicants will be provided with written feedback from the Committee. Please note: success at the EOI stage does not imply that an application will receive institutional endorsement for submission to the OLT. The decision to provide institutional endorsement to an application is at the sole disrection of the Vice-Chancellor (or his delegate) based on advice from the Committee. This advice is based on the extent to which the written application presented addresses the selection criteria.

3. Succussful applicants will be able to develop the EOI into a full application with support from the Institutional Contact Officer (ICO). Individual consultations and support will be provided for Teaching Award applicants.

4. Complete applications must be submitted to olt-admin@une.edu.au by 5pm on 24 May, 2013.

5. The Committee will assess applications and determine which applications may receive endorsement. Successful applicants will be provided with feedback for further development of their application. Unsucessful applicants will also be provided with feedback, but will not be able to submit a final version in 2013.

6. Final applications must be submitted to olt-admin@une.edu.au by 5pm on 14 June, 2013.

7. The Committee will assess the Final application and make a recommendation of endorsement to the Vice-Chancellor's delegate (PVC Educational Innovation and International).

8. The PVC EII will determine which applications will be endorsed based on the recommendation of the Committee. This decision is final.

9. UNE's Institutional Contact Officer will complete the submission of endorsed applications endorsed by the Committee to the Office for Learning and Teaching by 5pm 4 July, 2013.

Banner