Dr Julie Hulme awarded a National Teaching Fellowship
Dr Julie Hulme, Director of Learning and Teaching in the , has been awarded a highly coveted National Teaching Fellowship – the most prestigious award for teaching excellence in higher education.
Dr Hulme, a psychologist, started her academic journey as a mature student at Keele University 24 years ago, which helped her to recognise the importance of skills and confidence for successful university study, creating engaging learning opportunities to help her students to achieve their highest aspirations.
The Higher Education Academy (HEA) announced yesterday (Thursday, December 8) that 55 higher education staff have been awarded National Teaching Fellowships (NTF). Keele University now has six NTFs which is open to higher education staff whose teaching or support roles enhance the student learning experience.
Dr Hulme, who also won a Keele Excellence Award last year, said: “I was delighted when I found out I’d been awarded the NTF. I was a little surprised as it’s a very hard process but I was very hopeful too. Studying at Keele was the best decision I’ve made. I became a lab demonstrator at the university during my PhD studies from 1996 and I was hooked on teaching after that, I loved it.”
Her current students experience interactive, student-led teaching, developmental and dialogic feedback delivery, and a focus on the application of psychology to real-world problems, which helps them to develop employability, internationalisation and global citizenship skills.
Dr Hulme, who did her Foundation Year and Undergraduate studies at Keele, is also chair of the BPS Division of Academics, Researchers and Teachers in Psychology. All of her work aims to develop, discover and disseminate evidence to promote best practice in psychology education and beyond into other disciplines.
Dr Hulme is currently writing a student textbook on applying psychology to everyday life, which will be published in 2018. She is keen to build on her international networks to develop thinking and disseminate practice on teaching psychological literacy around the world. She intends to further develop her research into student transitions and effective feedback to students. Dr Hulme enjoys mentoring colleagues and supporting their development, and will be seeking opportunities to continue learning with and from other academics.
The new National Teaching Fellows (NTFs) represent institutions from across mission groups and are drawn from a broad range of subject areas. Successful nominees were nominated by their institutions.
Professor Marshall, HEA Chief Executive, said: “I am so pleased the HEA has the opportunity to run these awards, and to help to disseminate the best practice they reveal. Celebrating great teaching, whether by teams or individuals, is really important and highlights just some of the great work in the sector to improve the student experience.”
The awards will be formally presented at a celebration event to be held at Merchant Taylors’ Hall in London in January.