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HKU Advance HE Fellowship Scheme
Senior Fellowship (SFHEA)

Senior Fellowship (SFHEA) - Descriptor 3 (D3)

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Eligibility

Staff applying for Senior Fellow of Advance HE (D3) must have taught in Higher Education for at least five years and be able to demonstrate sustained leadership over the last three years with regard to teaching and learning. It is important to understand that moving from Fellowship to Senior Fellowship is not a natural progression. Rather it is to do with the role you occupy or have occupied in the last few years. The applicants will need to demonstrate sustained records of effectiveness, leadership, and impact on other colleagues’ practices in learning and teaching in higher education. Colleagues often need a better understanding of D3 in order to know their readiness before committing themselves to the writing of SF applications. Therefore, we make our SF workshops open for all HKU colleagues who are interested in knowing D3 better (please check Workshops and Registration for details). You can also refer to the Fellowship Category Tool by AHE to find out whether you are eligible for Senior Fellowship: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/form/fellowship-decision-tool-2023. If you are unsure about your eligibility, please contact Dr. Lily Zeng in TALIC.

Process and Timeline

The HKU Advance HE Fellowship Scheme is dependent on a mentoring system where colleagues who are SFHEA act as mentors for new applicants. We have to be careful how we use our resources because the number of SFHEA mentors at HKU is very limited at the moment. At the same time, it will be a big time commitment to write an SF application. Some colleagues have reported difficulty completing within the timeframe in the past.

To ensure your time invested leads to worthwhile results as much as possible and to use our mentor resources better, we have the following process for the SF applicants:

Workshops

You must attend all required workshops (Check Workshops and Registration for details).

EOI

After completing the required workshops, colleagues who are interested in applying for Senior Fellowships are invited to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) using the template in the HKU Senior Fellow of Advance HE (D3) Handbook (Appendix I) provided by TALIC. The EOI includes a brief account of one’s professional practice outlining one’s leadership in teaching and learning over the last 5 years, demonstrating the impact on colleagues (around 2,200 words).

This EOI will allow colleagues to collect feedback on whether their profile is likely to meet the requirements for a potentially successful application (in which case a colleague will be allocated a mentor) or recommendations on the areas they can work on to enhance their profile towards Senior Fellowship. Their EOI document can later form part of their final submission with modifications.

Working toward submission/Withdrawal

After completing the required workshops and the review of EOI, the applicants who are allocated mentors need to submit the applications within four adjacent deadlines (approximately 24 months) right after the completion of the workshops. All applicants must use the templates (Senior Fellowship (SFHEA) Application Template, Senior Fellowship (SFHEA)- Supporting Statement Template) provided in the HKU Senior Fellow of Advance HE (D3) Handbook. An applicant who cannot meet the fourth deadline will be taken as a withdrawal from the scheme. An applicant whose application is not approved needs to wait for a minimum of two years before submitting a new application.

Timeline

November 2024 cohort May 2025 cohort
Workshops 13th, 15th, 20th Nov 2024 12th, 14th, 19th May 2025
EOI submission 4th Dec 2024 9th Jun 2025
Application submission 30th July 2025 30th Dec 2025

Workshops and Registration

TALIC provides three workshops for HKU staff on Senior Fellowship application: An Introduction to the PSF (Workshop 1), An Introduction to the D3 (Workshop 2), and Drafting an SF application (Workshop 3). These workshops are open to all HKU colleagues who are interested in knowing of or working toward Senior Fellow. It is up to the participants whether they want to continue the process of submitting the EOIs and SF application within that cohort (please check Process and Timeline for details).

For those who want to submit applications for Senior Fellowship through HKU Advance HE Fellowship Scheme and have not obtained an FHEA yet, all three workshops are mandatory. If you have obtained an FHEA, you must attend Workshops 2 and 3.

All workshops will take place at RR321, Run Run Shaw Building, Main Campus, unless otherwise specified. We do not offer workshop recordings as a means for participants to meet the attendance requirement of the workshop.

Click the registration button below to register for the workshops:

2025 Cohort

Registration Workshop Time Date Venue
Registration Workshop 1: An introduction to the PSF 12:30-14:00 12th May 2025 (Mon) RR321, Run Run Shaw Building, Main Campus
Workshop 2: An introduction to the D3 12:30-14:00 14th May 2025 (Wed) [UPDATED] RR322, Run Run Shaw Building, Main Campus
Workshop 3: Drafting a reflective application for SF application 12:30-14:00 19th May 2025 (Mon) RR321, Run Run Shaw Building, Main Campus

Related Resources

In March 2021, we organized an event, “Leading/learning to lead teaching and learning in higher education: Working toward an Advance HE Senior Fellow recognition”, aiming support to the development of early to mid-career colleagues toward a Senior Fellow profile. The event was opened by Professor Ian Holliday (Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning)) and received highly positive feedback from colleagues. As requested by many colleagues who could not attend the event due to other commitments, the recording of the event has been made available on the event webpage.

Related Documents for Download

* This “Templates” document includes Template for Expression of Interest (EOI), Senior Fellowship (SFHEA) Application Template, and Senior Fellowship (SFHEA)- Supporting Statement Template.

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