My experience with applying for a Senior Fellowship

In Curtin University Malaysia, we first heard of Advance HE Fellowship around 2017 – 2018, when our mother campus in Perth, Australia had recently joined Advance HE as a member. Some of my braver colleagues had started with their applications, and they were successful.  

When the Covid pandemic hit in 2020, I thought that I would put together a Senior Fellowship application, based on the work I had done in my Faculty as an Associate Dean of Learning and Teaching. I had worked on a range of areas, and I thought that I would have sufficient breadth of experience to present.  

Once I started working on my application, I found the reflective writing needed for the application to be challenging. It was hard to present the work that I had done in a reflective manner and conceptualise the two case studies needed. 

Luckily, I had a wonderful mentor, Jaci who showed me that it was more about depth than breadth. I had to get used to writing ‘I’ statements and learned to present my work reflectively. I also had a colleague, Carrie, to thank, who helped so much with my writing.   

Impact 

My Senior Fellowship has helped open the door to my current position, as the Dean of Learning and Teaching in my campus. However, I am glad to say that the process of applying for Senior Fellowship has had a greater impact – my academic practice has permanently changed. Now, I am mindful about ensuring that my learning and teaching work is scholarly, and evidence-based. As a result, my knowledge and perception of learning and teaching practice has grown – I see what a rich and rewarding area it can be, and it has reinforced my belief that Learning and Teaching is a viable career pathway for academics.  

Fellowship target 

Moving ahead, our target at Curtin University is for each of our Malaysian academics to be Advance HE fellows by 2030. To meet this target, I work closely with our Perth colleagues in providing information, guidance and support to our academics. I will continue to mentor and provide guidance to academics at our campus and uphold scholarly practice in learning and teaching in our campus.  

Professor Tang Fu Ee is the Dean of Learning and Teaching at Curtin University Malaysia. He supports all academics’ learning and teaching activities, and students’ learning experiences across each Faculty/School.