Launched in 2006, HEA's mission is to improve students' learning by raising the quality and status of teaching in higher education. The HEA works with higher education institutions and individuals to enhance the quality of their teaching through accreditation of educational development services and professional recognition of teaching practice through fellowships benchmarked against the Professional Standards Framework (
UKPSF). Upon achieving accreditation,
subscribing institutions are gra
nted the authority to award HEA Fellowships to eligible staff in recognition of their continuing success in teaching and supporting learning. Professional recognition programs and awards serve as a benchmark for teaching excellence and accreditation is for validating the teaching courses and professional development schemes for development of faculty and educational developers.
AKU is HEA's first strategic partner in the developing world. Many UK and international institutions are aiming towards 100% of their staff gaining
HEA Fellowship in recognition of their teaching standards. Currently there are 87,000 HEA fellows in 46 countries around the world. In line with the recently approved AKU Teachers Academy, a pool of AKU faculty and education developers are applying for HEA fellowship. The pioneer-fellows will then mentor and assess other faculty to gain HEA Fellowship recognition to enable AKU to gain accreditation, so that AKU too can aim for all its faculty to gain Fellowship through an annual audited process by the HEA.
The Network of Teaching and Learning (TL_net) conducted a dialogue on "Higher Education Academy (HEA) Accreditation: Beginning the Journey towards the AKU Teachers Academy" on April 27, 2017 at the Centre of Innovation in Medical Education (CIME), Pakistan. Deans and Directors from Department for Educational Department, Karachi (DED), Institute for Educational Development- Karachi (IED), CIME, and School of Nursing and Midwifery-Karachi (SONAM) and HEA applicants from AKU joined hands together begin the development of a Professional Educational Development (PED) scheme for AKU faculty for HEA accreditation.
The workshop, facilitated by Dr Tashmin Khamis, Director of TL_net, gave a platform to the leaders from different entities to develop a shared understanding of the process of recognizing and accrediting teaching practice at AKU. Moreover, the requirements of HEA accreditation, advancements in and implications for institutional commitment to teaching and learning were discussed.
Work on HEA accreditation of TL_net's educational development activities has begun to internationally benchmark provision to motivate and recognise faculty for excellence in teaching, thereby creating educator mentors for other faculty, as agreed in the Board approved proposal on the Teachers Academy.
