Higher education professionals from across Malaysia come together to celebrate the launch of the country’s Senior Fellows Network

Advance HE in partnership with Sunway University is hosting a celebratory launch of The Malaysian Senior Fellows Network  in tribute to the country’s growing wealth of excellence in teaching and learning practice.

Fellowship is being increasingly embraced by higher education institutions in Malaysia and in 2020 Sunway University became the first institution in the country to be accredited by Advance HE to award Fellowships via its staff development programme. It achieved this by developing its Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Practice to align with both the Professional Standards Framework and Malaysian Qualifications Agency requirements.

Professional development

“Academic staff need quality professional development that gives them ongoing opportunities to reflect on their practice, engage with colleagues and explore their teaching and learning collaboratively,” said Sunway University’s Head of Academic Enhancement, Annyza Tumar.

“The purpose of The Malaysian Senior Fellows Network is to build a community of like-minded professionals who are all committed to providing quality education to their students and are on an on-going journey of teaching excellence.” 

Fellowship 

The Fellowship scheme is a globally-recognised marker of commitment to professionalism and a recognition of practice, impact and leadership in teaching and learning. Across the world, there are 170,000 Fellows across four categories. These are:

Associate Fellow   For those fairly new to a role in teaching and/or support for learning.

Fellow - For those from a wide variety of different contexts whose practice with learners has ‘breadth and depth’.

Senior Fellow – For those who lead and influence academic practice and higher education learning in a many different settings.

Principal Fellow – For those who demonstrate a sustained record of effectiveness in strategic leadership of high quality learning; and can show that their leadership has had extensive impact.

Reward for excellence

“Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia have embraced Fellowship as recognition and reward for excellence in teaching practice,” said Advance HE’s International Partnerships Manager Daniel Sheratte.

“Malaysia is now in the top ten countries outside the UK for its number of Fellows with more than 325 Fellows across the four categories.

 “Senior Fellowship in Malaysia has seen exceptional growth recently, with almost half of the 65 Malaysia Senior Fellowships being awarded since the beginning of 2022. This is real testament of the wealth of expertise and excellence in academic leadership and a fantastic foundation in putting Malaysia on the global map as a destination for excellent higher education provision.

“Senior Fellowship is awarded to those who have a sustained record of leading the practice of colleagues or other peers that teach or support high quality learning in higher education,” said Advance HE’s International Partnerships Manager Daniel Sheratte.

“We are honoured to be working with Sunway University, one of our esteemed, accredited members to celebrate the launch of this pioneering Malaysian Senior Fellows Network, as a collaborative forum to support the development of higher education in Malaysia.”