Celebrating Teaching

The R(D)SVS held it’s first 'Celebrating Teaching' event in June 2018, to both celebrate and publicly thank colleagues and students for their commitment to teaching and learning through achieving accredited fellowships of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) (now called Advance HE) and/or being awarded Teaching Awards.

The aim of the event was to:

• Inspire, enthuse and connect colleagues with a shared interest in teaching and educational research
• Celebrate staff and students ‘commitment to’ and ‘success in’ teaching and learning, enhancing the Student Experience, and educational development and research 
• Raise local awareness that the R(D)SVS has outstanding reputation at University, national & international level

We are pleased and proud that 77 colleagues have now gained HEA fellowships at one of four possible levels [2 Principal Fellows, 11 Senior Fellows, 44 Fellows and 20 Associate Fellows], and our Head of School gave a short speech and awarded them ‘Certificates of Thanks’ in recognition of the ‘commitment to professionalism in learning & teaching in Higher Education’ that these qualifications represent.

The event also enabled us to learn from colleagues who’ve recently won Teaching Awards (from both the Edinburgh University Students Association and R(D)SVS Staff Teaching Awards), with six of them giving wonderful reflective presentations about their teaching, that included sharing tips and hints about ‘what they do, and why they do it that way’.

We are also particularly proud of our undergraduate students’ commitment to advancing Veterinary Education either through achieving Associate Fellowship of the HEA (AFHEA) or our Undergraduate Certificate in Veterinary Medical Education (UCVME), as well as undertaking educational Student Research Component (SRC) projects. Two of our AFHEA Final Year students (Marie Menniti and Robert Campbell) gave inspiring and accomplished presentations about both their SRC projects and successful AFHEA applications, whilst also highlighting their benefits in terms of enhancing their CV’s and employability. Our students are wonderful ambassadors for the school, and we are certain that a number of them will be outstanding veterinary educators of the future.

Feedback from participants of the event (staff and students) was overwhelmingly positive, with comments regarding the ‘most useful aspect of the ‘Celebrating Teaching’ event’ including:

‘Feeling part of a community of colleagues and students who recognise the value of education’

‘For me, the sense of pride of the School of staff and students achieving excellence on teaching’

‘Talks from colleagues who have had aspects of their teaching recognised (award nominations etc) and hearing how their teaching practices lead to their award or nomination.’

We therefore intend to make ‘Celebrating Teaching’ an annual event as a way of publicly recognising and celebrating its importance to the School.