At Northumbria, we celebrate outstanding contributions to teaching and learning through a range of prestigious recognition schemes. From the Advance HE National Teaching Fellowship (NTF) and Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE), which honour individual and team impact on student success, to our own Distinguished Teaching Fellowships, we showcase innovation, collaboration, and excellence across the University. These awards highlight the transformative work of colleagues who shape exceptional student experiences and advance the teaching profession.
Northumbria Distinguished Teaching Awards
Northumbria Distinguished Teaching Fellowship awards celebrate the quality of colleagues' teaching and/or practice that supports learning. They are open to individual colleagues (individual awards), or to teams of colleagues (collaborative awards), who have made outstanding contributions to specific modules or programmes, who have developed particularly impactful teaching approaches, or whose practice/s have demonstrated a wider impact on the educational experience of our students.
Colleagues can find further information here.
Names of colleagues who have been awarded with Northumbria Distinguished Teaching Fellowships since 2022 are shown below:
Awarded 2026-27
| Awardee Image | Awardee | Summary of Excellence |
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Individual Award
Dr Roger Domeneghetti |
Roger has transformed the Media and Communication curriculum so that experiential learning and employability are now integral. At its centre is a Level 6 Employability Portfolio module that he co-designed with Graduate Futures and industry partners, supported by a redesigned placement-matching process and contemporary professional assessment. Graduate outcomes have risen and now exceed University targets. |
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Individual Award
Dr Richelle Duffy |
Richelle's practice is grounded in a "pedagogy of kindness" approach to staff and student development. As deputy lead for the PGCAP programme, she supported over 400 staff to complete the programme. She has also designed CPD raising the profile of teaching and inclusive practice, built tools mapping teaching provision to Student Access Plans, and launched an Education Excellence CPD Resource Library, embedding equity onto institutional infrastructure. |
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Individual Award
Alexandra Coates |
Alexandra's Make Space is a free ten-week evening workshop programme that invites staff and students from underrepresented groups into Northumbria's technical workshops to build a wooden stool from scratch. Every design choice (evening sessions, free materials, process valued over product) is there to build confidence and belonging in spaces that can feel closed off. |
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Collaborative Award
Application Lead - Dr Tadhg Blommerde
Team members: Dr Tadhg Blommerde, Dr Stephany Veuger, Dr Jonny Hall and Chris Simmonds |
This cross-disciplinary team help transform students from fearful, covert users of Generative AI into critical, ethical, and career-ready evaluators through student-led research. In collaboration with paid Student Education Partners, the project dismantles academic integrity anxieties and has directly influenced Northumbria’s Curriculum Excellence Framework, as well as national higher education networks. Their current objective is to scale their findings across UK programme leaders and build an evidence base for a CATE submission. |
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Collaborative Award
Application Lead - Dr Benjamin Ajibade
Team members: Dr Benjamin Ajibade and Dr Rick Hayman
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This team represent Northumbria on a five-year, four-strand programme widening access and belonging for racially minoritised postgraduate researchers. The team's activity brings together qualitative research, leadership within the £2.5m five-university Pro:NE partnership, an admissions briefing note on Positive Action, and anti-racist nursing education workshops co-produced with students and colleagues. Pro:NE has engaged more than 3,200 staff and students. At Northumbria, outcomes include mentoring embedded into academic staff workloading models and an admissions briefing note in active use by PGR selectors. |
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Collaborative Award
Application Lead - Dr Jane Murray
Team members: Dr Jane Murray, Katie Allan, Sarah Bisp, Carol Morgan, Dr Benjamin Ajibade, Dr Helen Merlane, Dr Jennifer Menzies and Dr Laura Park |
This team has delivered the BSc Nursing Science programme transnationally with Kaplan Singapore. The curriculum was co-designed with the Singapore Nursing Board and industry, assessment mirrors real practice, and a "you said, we did" feedback loop informs an annual team-wide review. Outcomes include zero attrition, a 100% pass rate and five-year regulatory accreditation. |
Individual Awards
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Dr Paul Dresser
Humanities and Social Sciences. |
Paul leads Northumbria's policing education provision, supporting more than 5,000 student police officers through to completion. His work spans co-constructed curriculum and module design, new approaches to End Point Assessment, successful regulatory inspections and audits, and delivery of CPD for colleagues inside and outside the University. |
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Sarah Morse
Northumbria Law School. |
Sarah's Street Law module is public legal education in action: Northumbria law students plan and deliver lessons to high-school pupils, reaching an estimated 2,500 young people since 2017. Enquiry-based, authentic and creative by design, the module has grown strongly and continues to attract excellent student feedback. |
Collaborative Award
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Briana Fahey and Stephen Boddy
School of Geography and Natural Sciences |
Briana and Stephen have developed neuroscience Directed Learning Activities for the St George's University MD programme as interactive clinical cases in Qualtrics. Branching logic, retrieval practice, immediate feedback and adaptive progression were used in place of traditional PowerPoint slides to enhance clinical reasoning and engagement. |
Awarded 2025-26
Dr Liam T. Pearson-Noseworthy, Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation
Dr Lee Shepherd, Psychology
Dr Colin Richardson, Marketing, Operations and Systems
Chris Warnock, Social Work Education & Community Wellbeing
Dr Lesley McIntyre, Architecture and Built Environment
Dr Paul Cook, Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation
Dr Carly Guest, Sociology
Dr Paul McKeown, Law
Dr Catherine Glover, Design, Arts and Creative Industries
Awarded 2024-25
Dr Tadhg Blommerde, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Strategy
Dr David Hart, Marketing, Operations and Systems
Awarded 2023-24
Dr Elisabeth Griffiths, Law
Dr Michael Jeffries, Geography & Environmental Sciences
Dr Michael Elsdon, Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering
Dr Matthew Blacklock, Mechanical & Construction Engineering
Dr Kellie Forbes-Simpson, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Strategy
Dr Martyn Hudson, Arts
Dr Biddy Casselden, Computer & Information Sciences
Awarded 2022-23
Dr Stephany Veuger, Applied Sciences
Dr Victoria Roper, Law
Dr Helen King, Geography and Environmental Sciences
Dr Kirstin Mulholland, Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing
Prof Daniel Laqua, Humanities
Andrea Couture, Architecture and Built Environment
Dr Rick Hayman, Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation
Dr Rachael Chapman, Social Sciences
Dr Emma Thirkell, Leadership and HRM
Dr Helen Hooper, Applied Sciences
Mark Kirk, Architecture and Built Environment
Dr Kirstin Mulholland (lead), Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing
Julie Trueman, Design
Education Enhancement Projects
Northumbria’s competitive Education Enhancement Projects focus on developing an educational base to implement Northumbria’s Education Strategy and University Strategic Ambitions, with a focus on ‘Powering an inclusive economy’ through ‘transformative experiential learning, building students’ skills and social capital’, and ‘Driving Social Mobility’ by ‘eliminating gaps in post-study success through education tailored to students’ needs’ (University Strategy 2030).
Projects focus on exploring the practice of Northumbria’s distinctive pedagogy of experiential and authentic enquiry based learning, and the promotion of equality, diversity and inclusion. This includes authentic enquiry-based learning through clinics and live projects, simulated learning, placements and internships, service learning and volunteering, vertically integrated learning, interdisciplinary learning, and other forms of experiential learning that engage students actively with their learning, promoting Northumbria graduate attributes and a sense of community, based on equality, diversity and inclusion.
A competitive process operates each year to award colleagues with funding to progress their projects.
Northumbria staff can find out more about the scheme by following this link.
Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE)
Advance HE’s Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) recognises and celebrates collaborative work that has had a demonstrable impact on teaching and learning. CATE awardees join a national community of like-minded professionals who are passionate about collaborative approaches to teaching excellence.
Northumbria University run an annual internal process to support colleagues towards a CATE submission. Colleagues can find more information on applying for a CATE here.
CATE Attainment:
The following Northumbria colleagues have successfully attained a CATE Award; in some instances this may have been whilst working at another institution.
Awardee (CATE Team Lead/Member)
Faculty
Dr Liz Hoult
Health and Life Sciences
Kirstin Mulholland
Health and Life Sciences
Prof Nic Whitton (cross-institutional collaboration)
Engineering and Environment
National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS)
he purpose of Advance HE’s National Teaching Fellowship (NTF) Scheme is to recognise, reward and celebrate individuals who have made an outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession.
Northumbria University run an annual internal process to support colleagues towards NTFS submission. Colleagues can find more information on applying for a NTFS here.
NTF Attainment:
A number of current Northumbria University Staff have successfully attained an NTF Award; in some instances this may have been whilst working at another institution. They include:
Name
Faculty
Prof. John Unsworth
Health and Life Sciences
Dr Elaine Gregersen (nee Campbell)
Business and Law
Dr Mel Gibson
Health and Life Sciences
Prof. Paul Jones
Engineering and Environment
Prof. Nic Whitton
Engineering and Environment
Dr Elisabeth Griffiths
Society and Culture
Dr Kirstin Mulholland
Health and Life Sciences
Dr Rick Hayman
Health and Life Sciences
Dr Susan Dawson
Engineering and Environment
Northumbria run an internal process annually to support colleagues towards NTF submissions. Colleagues can find out more here.
Page last reviewed: 15 April 2026
