Professor Jan Bamford, Dr Eleni Meletiadou and the Social Work team led by Donna Jones receive prestigious awards from AdvanceHE for exceptional contributions to higher education
Date: 09 August 2024
Professor Jan Bamford, Professor of International Higher Education and Co-Director of Higher Education Research Group at the University and Dr Eleni Meletiadou, Associate Professor in Management Learning and Education, have been awarded prestigious National Teaching Fellowships (NTFs) by AdvanceHE.
The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme celebrates and recognises individuals who have made an outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession in UK higher education. The competitive scheme awards up to 55 National Teaching Fellowships each year, nationally. It celebrates and rewards outstanding individual impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession.
Commenting on their awards, Professor Julie Hall, Vice Chancellor, said: “It fills me with immense pride to see Jan and Eleni receiving such a prestigious accolade. The acknowledgement from AdvanceHE is a reflection of their innovative methodologies and the transformative influence they've had on student outcomes. They are shining examples of the thriving academic professional community at London Met.”
Internationally recognised innovation
Over the past 30 years, internationally known Professor Jan Bamford has undertaken research in the field of international students' experiences of UK Higher Education and higher education in other countries, particularly in France, Italy and Sweden, as well as students’ experiences of culturally plural classrooms, student engagement and the use of group work assessments in higher education. She has always tried to push boundaries and extend innovation, her pioneering work on internationalisation and students as co-creators. Her recent project, the London Met Citizenship project, introduced in 2019, is a bespoke virtual learning environment involving gamified digital reusable learning objects (RLOs) developed and co-designed by students, showcases her creative thinking to student learning.
Internationally award-winning Dr Eleni Meletiadou, Associate Professor in Management Learning and Education, is known for her pioneering work that champions integrating EDI with digital pedagogy and multilingualism into curricula to ensure equal access for all students. Her bottom-up approach has enabled whole-institutional change in European universities, engaging thousands of students, and staff to educate themselves voluntarily on EDI. Eleni strives to inspire and empower her colleagues, promoting active engagement, fair representation, and action leading to change. Additionally, she collaborates with colleagues and institutional leaders to build future teaching capability, as she believes in the power of transformational leadership in stimulating organisational change that inspires new ways of thinking and affirms and capitalises on existing practice.
People with lived experience of social work
The Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) recognises and celebrates collaborative work that has had a demonstrable impact on teaching and learning. Each award recognises a team which has enabled a change in practice for colleagues and/or students at an institutional or discipline level. The competitive scheme awards up to 16 CATEs each year, nationally.
The social work team, led by Donna Jones, consists of twelve members of staff. The strength of the core team is that all members are permanent staff which ensures long-term collaboration and meaningful relationship-building with the wider team, especially students, People with Lived Experience of social work and employer agencies. The team’s collective approach emphasises staff/student partnership, student voice and empowerment, staff/Student belonging and cultural capital, and excellent teaching practices incorporating critical creativity.
Using the model of ‘engaged leadership;’ they recognise the importance of social and communal processes that strengthens both collective and individual skills within the core and wider team enabling on-going dialogue to positively influence organisational culture and transgress traditional boundaries. Therefore, it is not only what the team do/teach, but how the team does/teaches that is transformational and has a lasting impact.
Award winning initiatives
The trailblazing, nationally recognised and SU Award winning Rainbow Room initiative works collaboratively with LGBTQIA+ students, staff and the wider local community to host events, workshops and Trips as well as welcome hundreds of visitors.
Commenting on their award, Professor Julie Hall, Vice Chancellor, said “it’s amazing to see Donna Jones and the Social Work team recognised for their incredible work, their empowering work makes such as a difference to their students and the local community, which London Met serves.”
This year’s National Teaching Fellowship Scheme was supported by last year’s NTF, Neelam Thapar. Previous Collaborative Award Teaching Excellence winners, Associate Teaching Professor, Tom Burns and Sandra Sinfield supported 2024’s successful CATE team. Santanu Vasant, Head of Educational Development and Digital Education thanked them for their generous support.
Jan and Eleni are the eighth and ninth members of staff to receive this prestigious award, following on from James Elander & Gulielmo Volpe (2004), Cecile Tschirhart (2006), Steven Curtis (2011), and Sandra Denicke (2018), Neelam Thapar and Danielle D’hayer (2023).
Donna Jones and the Social Work are the second CATE winners, following Associate Teaching Professors Tom Burns and Sandra Sinfield, who won the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) in 2022 for CreativeHE.
