National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS)
The NTF scheme is a highly prestigious and competitive award that recognises, rewards and celebrates individuals who have made an outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession.
Introduced by Advance HE in 2000, up to 55 awards are made annually. Each institutional subscriber to Advance HE can support up to three nominations each year who can evidence outstanding impact on teaching and learning within Higher Education. The nominations are peer-evaluated and scores returned to the UK Teaching Excellence Awards Advisory Panel, which makes recommendations on the winners to Advance HE.
The University of Manchester's nominations are co-ordinated internally by the Teaching Excellence team through the Institute of Teaching and Learning (ITL) and on behalf of Teaching and Learning Strategy Committee (TLSC). The Teaching Excellence team provides support for the selected nominees.
Are you a future National Teaching Fellow?
The Institute of Teaching and Learning welcomes expressions of interest in being one of the University’s three nominees for Advance HE National Teaching Fellowship (NTF).
This prestigious annual award is given to up to 55 individuals from across the sector based on the following criteria:
- Criterion 1: Individual Excellence - Evidence of enhancing and transforming student outcomes and/or the teaching profession; demonstrating impact commensurate with the individual’s context and the opportunities afforded by it.
- Criterion 2: Raising the profile of excellence - Evidence of supporting colleagues and influencing support for student learning and/or the teaching profession; demonstrating impact and engagement beyond the nominee’s immediate academic or professional role.
- Criterion 3: Developing excellence - Show the nominee’s commitment to and impact of ongoing professional development with regard to teaching and learning and/or learning support.
Value, Reach and Impact are defined by Advance HE as:
| Value | Reach | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| The benefit derived for students and staff (which may take different forms). Value may include qualitative evidence such as a change in approach to learning among students or staff. For example, evidence may be provided about how the work being described has added value to the student learning experience or to teaching practice. Value may also relate to the quality of enhanced experiences and the meaningfulness of practices. Some nominees may also be working in settings where there are positive explicit ethical elements to their practice. | The scale of influence. Though ‘geographic’ reach may be important for some nominees, it is useful to consider other ways that a nominee can demonstrate reach. Some nominees may demonstrate reach at a departmental, faculty, institutional, national and/or global level, for example, but others might provide evidence of how their practice has reached different groups of students, individuals, staff teams and/or organisations (e.g. postgraduates, commuter students, students from minoritized ethnic groups, online learners, etc.). | The difference that has been made to policy, practice and/or student outcomes in an HE context as the result of an activity. The focus here is on explicit evidence of positive change taking place. Impact evidence can be both quantitative and qualitative, but it is important to show how the activities described have changed HE teaching practice and/or learning outcomes. |
Nomination process
Expressions of Interest in being one of the university’s nominees are evaluated by a panel chaired by the Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and the Student Experience, with representation from each Faculty as well as Professional Services. Successful applicants then work intensively with the university's Teaching Excellence Awards Lead (TEAL) to develop a full claim for submission to Advance HE the following March.
- Please email your completed Expression of Interest (word document) to the Institute of Teaching and Learning
- Deadline: Thursday 16 April 2026, 6pm
The university would normally expect successful nominees to hold, or be working towards, Senior or Principal Fellowship of AdvanceHE.
Expressions of Interest should set out an authentic narrative that clearly outlines the nominee's pedagogic approach and provides conceptual coherence across the 3 criteria, supported by a mixture of qualitative and quantitative evidence of the outstanding value, reach and impact of the nominee's practice over a sustained period.
NTF pipeline programme
If you think you might be interested in putting yourself forward for nomination in the next three years or so, please complete this Expression of Interest form: Pipeline Programme Expression of Interest Form
You will then be contacted with information about the NTF 'Pipeline Programme' - a series of interactive workshops exploring the award criteria and process, which is run collaboratively with the universities of Liverpool, Northumbria, MMU and BPP, starting each Spring.
Further information
For further details about the NTF scheme and institutional support available please:
- see NTF scheme: Advance HE guidance
- contact our Teaching Excellence Award Lead (TEAL), Emma Sanders, at teaching.learning@manchester.ac.uk