Nine members of staff have been awarded prestigious Bangor University Teaching Fellowships. Teaching Fellowships recognise the importance of exceptional teaching and learning within the University, and are awarded based on evidence of excellence within five categories: Enhancement, Innovation, Impact, Scholarship, and Leadership.
Nominations for Teaching Fellowships are made by Heads of Schools, and their evidence is reviewed by the Teaching Fellowships Panel, chaired by Professor Nicky Callow, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning. The Panel is composed of the College Directors of Teaching and Learning, members of Bangor University’s Centre for Enhancement in Learning & Teaching (CELT), and representatives from the Students’ Union.
Professor Nicky Callow, Professor Nicky Callow, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning said: “This year’s Fellowship recipients embody excellence in teaching and learning within Bangor University. It is without doubt that these recipients have transformed the learning experience for individual students, cohorts of students, modules, and programmes. More than that, these award recipients have positively enhanced practice within, and in many cases, beyond our University. Whilst Bangor University Teaching Fellowships are always a special recognition of excellence, to have received this award under the circumstances of this past year, is truly exceptional.”
This year’s Teaching Fellowships have been awarded to:
Dr Gemma Griffith
Senior Lecturer in Psychology
Dr Gemma Griffith is an outstanding staff member within the School of Psychology. Gemma is Course Director for our internationally renowned Masters in Mindfulness programmes, and in this role, she has enhanced accessibility to funding, enabling a significant increase in applications. In addition, Gemma’s pedagogical research on teacher training is informing best practice across the UK and also on an international stage, evidenced by her recent publications, inclusive of the book Essential Resources for Mindfulness Teachers (2021).
Gemma has an excellent track-record with regard to dissertation supervision, enabling a significant number of her masters’ students to publish; this has been hailed as outstanding practice by our External Examiners. In sum, Gemma’s careful and compassionate mentorship and leadership, as well as her excellence in teaching and pedagogy, make her truly worthy of this prestigious award.
Dr Caroline Bowman, Interim Head of School, Psychology
Gemma said, “I am delighted to receive the teaching fellowship for teaching on the Master’s in mindfulness programme at Bangor University. Teaching on this masters has lead me and our team to further develop the pedagogy of how best to train mindfulness teachers, this includes the inside out group model, a reflective practice tool called the MBI:TLC, and a recent book called ‘Essential Resources for Mindfulness Teachers‘. I originally studied psychology back in 2004 with the hope that I would one day be able to have a positive impact on people, and as we train students to become mindfulness teachers themselves, there is a sense that our teaching on the master’s course ripples out far beyond Bangor, when our students teach their participants about how they might use mindfulness to help to reduce stress and increase wellbeing. This sense of being part of the community of mindfulness practitioners and researchers – drawing upon the wisdom of those who taught me, and passing that knowledge on to others, is a daily source of inspiration.”
Dr Dei Huws
Senior Lecturer in Ocean Sciences
Dei’s leadership in Teaching and Scholarship has been long term and outstanding, and the organisational structure he has established, interventions he has put in place, skills developed and good practice disseminated have been central to the School successfully adapting to online teaching with great efficiency. Dei is passionate about the quality and excellence of teaching and has successfully passed on that passion to encourage all staff to be innovative and to design teaching around student focussed learning.
Dei is a highly experienced member of the University’s Quality Assurance and Validation Panel, regularly undertaking audits, international partnership agreements and revalidation events across the University, including assessing programmes in situ at Changsha, China. Having originally initiated and led College Welsh Medium teaching, Dei led the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol project to attract more WM students to SOS.
Professor John Turner, Head of School of Ocean Sciences
Dei said, “The best days come in various guises, but they usually involve practical classes where there’s time to chat and get to know students. Whether it’s in the laboratory, ‘squashing mud’ to find its physical properties for engineering applications or in the field, performing geophysical surveys to deduce what’s under the ground without using a JCB! For the last couple of years, it’s given me and the module team a lot of joy to introduce a geology field course module based solely on Anglesey – what with the island being a UN designated GeoPark. In the School, it’s been great to help develop the teaching and learning aspects, based around a super team of teaching and scholarship staff that are forever finding better ways of doing things and then supporting the other, equally fantastic, staff in the School to do likewise.”
Riaz Anwar
Lecturer in Accounting
Riaz Anwar is an outstanding lecturer. She constantly receives praise from the student body for ensuring that student wellbeing is at the heart of everything she does. Her commitment to excellence is demonstrated by Riaz becoming a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) in 2020, and also in being shortlisted for the Student Teacher-Led Award (STLA) in 2021.
During the pandemic, Riaz took on the role of Blended Learning Lead for the Business School, and has been a great support to her colleagues in this area, running school wide training sessions, showing examples of best practice, and holding drop-in clinics to help other academics overcome the complexities of this area.
Riaz genuinely cares about the learning experiences and future goals of her students, and she is both admired and deeply valued by her colleagues.
Professor Bruce Vanstone, Head of Bangor Business School
Riaz said, “I’m delighted and honoured to be the recipient of a Bangor University Fellowship award.
My ethos is making students responsible for their own learning by creating an exceptionally high level of engagement in the classroom. I encourage students to interact throughout lectures by means of using bite sized activities. My relaxed approach makes learning more interesting and ultimately creates an environment in which students feel safe to express their views without being concerned about making mistakes.
I love developing innovative ways of engaging with my students to ensure my sessions are interactive. For this purpose, I often draw on my passion for accounting and use my professional experience to provide practical examples. This enables students to consider the impact of current events on accounting practice.
I was appointed Blended Learning Lead at Bangor Business School at the start of the 2020/21 academic year. This enabled me to draw on my extensive experience of working with technology to support my colleagues in using technology to create a learning environment that promotes interactive and engaging participation.“
Dr Tim Holmes
Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice
Tim has always delivered popular modules on transnational crime, imprisonment and punishment in society. However, his work on developing the policing programmes is outstanding. His efforts are invaluable for the School, the University and for North Wales Police more broadly. Awarding him the Teaching Fellowship reflects his achievements and rewards his effort and commitment.
Professor Peter Shapely, Head of School of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences
Tim added, “Thank you for selecting me to receive this award, the last year of teaching has been both challenging and rewarding in many ways. When the policing degree programmes were first proposed pre-Covid, we envisaged a truly collaborative programme working with North Wales Police. I am pleased to say that we have maintained this ethos through lockdowns, validation of the policing degrees and starting our first year of teaching. Working with Pro.essor Martina Feilzer, Julie Brierly, Steve Nash, Rob Darnell and the North Wales Police trainers and staff as a joint development team on this has been a great experience.”
Dr Sarah Zylinski
Lecturer in Marine Biology
Sarah is an outstanding member of the teaching staff whose work with students to improve their experience, and contributions to teaching development in Ocean Science, have been exceptional. Sarah receives consistent praise from both the students she teaches and those she encounters through her role as Director Student Engagement due to the extra distance she goes in her lecture presentations, supporting materials, guidance and support.
Sarah has led the School in improving module organisation (the most important predictor of student satisfaction). She developed a ‘one-stop-shop’ for information at a higher level than modules, and she has produced a series of generic skills guides pitched in student friendly language on topics which even include online etiquette. Her innovation is exemplified by a deep sea animal version of ‘Top Trumps’ which brings extreme marine habitat lectures to life by ‘tentacle and jaw’.
Professor John Turner, Head of School of Ocean Sciences
Rebecca Jones
Teaching Associate
Rebecca is a dedicated and enthusiastic teacher who continues to show a remarkable commitment to the student experience and employability.
Rebecca’s creativity, organisation and management of the placement programmes has been highly successful just at a time when placement experiences and employability are becoming more important. Her contribution to the planning and execution of Welcome Week for SNS was exemplary, and helped to support students at a very difficult time, when we were all working from home and unable to meet our students face to face. Rebecca is a valued colleague and has much to offer the School and the University in terms of her consideration of student needs and abilities.
Professor Nia Whiteley, Head of School of Natural Sciences
Rebecca said, “I am a passionate supporter of student employability and have worked hard to advance the already established placements within the school. Placements are an important tool that students can use to implement theory into practice, develop valuable transferable skills, and explore potential career paths. I help students make informed decisions about whether a placement is right for them by coordinating cross-university talks. I’m always happy to share knowledge and ideas, and have helped advise other schools on our best practice methods and ways of implementing placements within their schools.
I strive to ensure a safe, encouraging and supportive environment for students, similar to the one I received when I studied at Bangor University and which undoubtedly has helped me succeed, and helps me today strive to be a better educator. I am grateful to now work with such supportive colleagues who have helped make my teaching journey such a positive and rewarding experience.“
Dr Eirin Sanoudaki
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics
Dr Eirini Sanoudaki is an exceptional educator who goes above and beyond in teaching and supporting our students, and so the school is delighted that she has been awarded this fellowship.
Her teaching style is dynamic, passionate and fun and is uniformly well-received by students. Recent evaluations for her teaching include comments like: “Eirini’s teaching methods are excellent” meaning “everybody is able to contribute…without feeling nervous”. She makes classes “very engaging” and during Blended Learning she found innovative ways to ensure students interact online while learning about linguistics.
A native speaker of Greek, since starting working at Bangor Eirini has learnt Welsh fluently. Anything she can do through Welsh, she will, from writing emails to teaching. She is also active in promoting the university via Welsh language media and public engagements. Eirini contributes hugely to a visible multilingual community within the school and the wider university, which was recognized recently by her winning a national prize for using Welsh in the workplace.
Part of Eirini’s mission at Bangor is to create and sustain a community of postgraduate research students (PGRs) across the school, in her current role as Director of Postgraduate Research. The net result of Eirini’s efforts is an increase over time in PGR satisfaction within the school during her watch, as evidenced by PRES survey results year on year. She has managed to ensure a consistency of experience to the school’s PGRs, providing them with the support and structure they need to thrive.
Suffice to say, Eirini has had a positive and lasting impact on our students’ experience of Bangor through her tireless work, positivity and collegiality, and she will doubtless continue to do so. The school is very proud of Eirini – da iawn ti.
Dr Peredur Webb-Davies, co-acting Head of School of Languages, Literatures, Linguistics and Media
Eirini added, “I am honoured to be awarded a Bangor University Teaching Fellowship and touched by my colleagues’ kindness in nominating me. Bangor University has been my multilingual, multicultural home for over a decade, during which I learnt so much from the students I teach, the postgraduate researchers I support and from my wonderful colleagues. I couldn’t imagine a nicer place to work, learn and grow!”
Dr Jaci Huws, Senior Lecturer in Healthcare Sciences
I am delighted that Jaci has been awarded this prestigious award this year, testament to Jaci’s outstanding and sustained contribution to teaching, learning, and a track record of going above and beyond to support Bangor students. Through her many roles, Jaci consistently demonstrates exceptionally high standards for teaching and a strong desire to provide students with the optimum learning experience, and this award reflects the recognition by students and colleagues of Jaci’s unswerving commitment to her role at Bangor. Jaci is an excellent ideal role model and I wish to congratulate her warmly on the Teaching Fellowship.
Dr Lynne Williams, Head of School of Health Sciences
Jaci said, “Students studying on the courses that I teach come from all over the world – some live a stone’s throw away from the University, whilst many travel many thousands of miles to study at Bangor. They all share a passion about health, public health, and the promotion of health, and what I enjoy most about my work is being amongst so many students who are so focussed on making a difference. As an added bonus, I get to do my work as part of a team of staff who are also focussed on making positive differences to people’s lives; it is no wonder that I love my job so much!”
Kevin Williams, Chief Technician – Physiology Research and Teaching
Kevin Williams has had an expansive influence on teaching and student support within SHES. His work is outstanding and goes far above and beyond what is expected for a technical member of staff. As a practical and applied subject, taught in a research-led curricular, sport and exercise science at Bangor is very reliant on laboratory and technical support. Kevin has provided this without fault during his career, but he has also gone above and beyond to ensure a practical element to our undergraduate and postgraduate degrees has remained possible during the pandemic.
Beyond his technician role, Kevin is a module leader and personal tutor, where his work is recognized as outstanding by his students and colleagues. He uses his English and Welsh language skills, and is always willing to drop his current task, to help individual students and staff when they inevitably knock on his door in times of laboratory or pastoral need. Kevin’s activities impact positively upon the whole School, and we are all very pleased that his dedication and excellence is being recognized with a Bangor University Teaching Fellowship.
Dr Jamie Macdonald, Head of School of Sports, Health and Exercise Sciences
Kevin added, “Having the opportunity to teach our students as a technician is a great honour for me and is an aspect of my role that gives me the greatest sense of achievement and satisfaction. This year has been particularly challenging for all teaching staff and has required flexible and innovative delivery of teaching sessions.
In the laboratory setting we incorporated a mixture of online resources and ‘in-person’ teaching, with procedures and equipment significantly modified to ensure the safety of students and staff. The additional work involved was at times extremely difficult to manage, however the feedback we received from our students and staff was fantastic and made all the extra effort worthwhile. I am truly honoured to receive this award and thank all staff involved.”
