Western Educational Fellowship Scheme (WEFS)

The 21C Western Educational Fellowship Scheme (WEFS) provides academic and professional staff with an opportunity to apply for international and externally peer reviewed recognition of their education practice with Advance HE. The Fellowship enables staff to benchmark their practice according to the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF). Advance HE Fellowships are internationally recognised, portable and ongoing. Applying for a Fellowship encourages staff to use the UKPSF to review, develop, benchmark and demonstrate the quality of their education and teaching practice. Becoming a Fellow demonstrates a commitment to reflective teaching, learning support, and education practice within the discipline or division in which you work. For academics, a Fellowship adds to the suite of evidence for academic promotion; for professional staff, it offers visible recognition of how your work supports students’ educational success.

Round 5 applications have now closed. Applications will be assessed, and applicants notified of their outcome on Wednesday, 20th October 2021.

What is involved?

There are four categories of Fellowship, reflecting the wide range of learning and teaching support carried out by academic and professional staff working in the higher education sector. To begin, staff choose and negotiate the category of Fellowship that best reflects their education practice. Advance HE offers an online Fellowship Decision Tool to assist staff in determining the category of Fellowship that best reflects their current role and experience. Staff then prepare a written application to demonstrate how their practice is aligned with the UKPSF. Participants will also need to obtain Supporting Statements from referees. The application and the referees’ statements are then submitted to Advance HE to be assessed by an international panel of Advance HE Assessors. Advance HE Fellows are then entitled to use a post-nominal letters to recognise their category of Fellowship. An overview of the categories is outlined below.

Successful Fellows join a community of over 4500 Australian-based Advance HE Fellows, and over 140,000 Fellows world-wide. They have ongoing access to the resources and opportunities for professional learning and development provided by Advance HE.

Our Scheme at Western?

Since 2017, WEFS has supported four rounds of academic and professional staff to develop Fellowship applications. Currently, Western has over 100 Fellows comprised of doctoral students, project officers, sessional teachers, librarians, unit coordinators, ACAs, DAPs, Associate Deans, and L&T senior leaders. It expects to at least double that figure by the end of the 21C Project. Ashley Beathe (one of our 21C SCPs) is the first of our student partners to become an Associate Fellow of Advance HE.

When you are part of WEFS, you have access to a suite of opportunities that support your Fellowship application: collegial group mentoring (led by an existing Fellow); access to the WEFS vUWS site containing guidance, templates, scholarly resources, videos etc; examples of successful Western Fellowship applications; workshops to unpack the UKPSF and Descriptors, as well as Shut Up and Write sessions.

What do Western Fellows say about the Experience?

“I thought the level of support was excellent. As a sessional staff member, it was great to be included; I think more sessional tutors would consider applying if they were confident it would be recognised by Subject convenors / senior academics, and would play a role in securing further teaching work”.

“this is a great process to consolidate existing professional practices that I think could be expanded  more broadly to offer professional development in teaching and learning for staff that could culminate in a WEFS application.”

“One of the most challenging but best experience during COVID-19. I felt a sense of purpose and was driven to accomplish this work to the best of my ability. Felt really good after completing this.”

A summary of the recommendations and actions from WEFS participants in 2020 is available here (PDF, 1412.57 KB) (opens in a new window).

How can I become Fellow? There are two ways:

1. Round 5 applications closed on Friday, 8th October 2021. Details of the next round of supported applications is yet to be confirmed.


2. You can apply on your own at any time that suits you, and pay the application fee yourself (or have a conversation with your supervisor about WEFS in the context of your performance goals for the year). As Western staff, you are eligible for the discounted rate. To support your application, you will have access to latest information (templates, guidelines, example successful Fellowship applications) on the WEFS vUWS site but you are unable to access to collegial cohort support available through WEFS.

Please contact Badugulang for further information.