NTFS and CATE stars shine bright in 2022 awards ceremony

Winners of the 2022 National Teaching Fellowship and Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence celebrated their prestigious awards in a ceremony at Anfield, Liverpool on 29 September.

More than 225 guests enjoyed the in-person ceremony exclusively for 2022 NTFs and CATE award winners after the 2020 and 2021 awards were combined due to Covid disruption.  

L-R: Group images of the 2022 National Teaching Fellows and winning teams for the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence

Welcoming the 2022 winners, Alison Johns, Chief Executive of Advance HE, reflected on the commonalities between the host venue, Liverpool Football Club, and the higher education awards. She said, “This club celebrates some of best individual managers and players this game has ever seen - let’s call those NTFs; some of the very best teams in the modern era - let’s call those CATEs; it has passionate supporters of those individual and teams - let’s call them all of the rest of us.

“You don’t have to be a Liverpool supporter to recognise that this club has built an ethos for a collective responsibility and commitment to outreach and community - let’s equate that to spreading the word, motivating, inspiring and having an impact on staff and students in our HE communities; and finally, in common with this club, we share an absolute passion and dedication for what we do.

“Tonight is the night when the sector pays tribute to not just your passion for teaching but for what you have achieved: the impact, the motivation and inspiration you give as NTFs and CATE winners.”

In her speech, Professor Becky Huxley-Binns, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education at the University of Hull, and Chair, UK Teaching Excellence Awards Advisory Panel 2022 paid tribute to the 2022 award winners by comparing them to the stars that have graced Anfield as a musical venue including Paul McCartney, Take That, Bon Jovi, Pink, Elton John and the Rolling Stones.

She reminded the new National Teaching Fellows that if they needed assurance of being in great company at Anfield, the advisory panel has a rigorous, robust and diligent system in place when awarding NTFs. She confirmed, “You are amazing. You are excellent and you know that because we checked!”

Reflecting on the themes of this year’s winning CATE projects, Prof Huxley-Binns said these award hold up a mirror to what matters most in higher education and that themes such as wellbeing and students as partners were evident within many more nominations in 2022, showing the increasing importance of this work.

She said, “The very best colleagues who teach and support student learning observed the effects of the pandemic on current and future students and said, we need interventions, initiatives and activities to support wellbeing and we do this with our students as partners. Is there anywhere better to celebrate this reflection of higher education than Anfield? Across the Shankly Lane, the hit song from Gerry and the Pacemakers adopted by Liverpool fans as their anthem is, You’ll Never Walk Alone, and that’s what you have done with our students.”