What is CREATE?
BILT is home to the Cultivating Research-Rich Education and Teaching Excellence (CREATE) Scheme. CREATE is a way for all staff at the University of Bristol who teach and/or support learning to develop their teaching and learning practice, and gain recognition for the work they do with students. CREATE contains two main routes to teaching recognition, and both are accredited by Advance HE. The first is the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP), which is a Level 7 credit-bearing programme. The PGCAP is generally taken by staff new to learning and teaching in higher education (usually staff with fewer than three years teaching experience), and they engage in two 30 credit units. The PGCAP aims to:
- Inspire and support participants to develop their teaching practice to provide a high-quality learning experience for their higher education students.
- Develop participants’ understanding of key aspects of academic practice in higher education, including the principles and processes of learning and teaching, and external and institutional factors impacting upon academic practice.
- Provide opportunities for participants to undertake disciplinary and interdisciplinary research and scholarship in academic practice with a view to developing research-rich academic practice.
- Develop participants’ ability to undertake and innovate in curriculum design and development, teaching, learning support, assessment, and evaluation in higher education in order to enhance the student learning experience.
- Engender a culture which promotes equality and diversity through the design and development of inclusive programmes and practice.
- Enable participants to reflect critically upon their academic practice and to plan their own continuing professional development.
Through the PGCAP, participants engage in a series of workshops linked to key university priorities and strategy aims, engage in interdisciplinary learning group activities to collaborate with colleagues from other departments and learn more about best practice in learning and teaching from across the institution. In their assessment on the PGCAP, participants engage in critical reflection on their teaching, learning and assessment activities, framed around wider higher educational themes (such as inclusivity, sustainability, and employability). Participants complete observations of teaching, and receive feedback on their practice from experienced colleagues, and also receive audio and written formative and summative feedback from the teaching team on their assessments.
The second route to teaching recognition within CREATE is the HEA Fellowship Scheme. This is an experiential route to HEA Fellowship, and we have been accredited by Advance HE to recognise staff as HEA Associate Fellows, HEA Fellows, and HEA Senior Fellows. PGRs who teach, staff very new to teaching/supporting learning in HE, and professional services staff who support learning usually have fewer teaching responsibilities and are therefore generally supported to apply for HEA Associate Fellow. Most participants on the HEA Scheme are Lecturers who are able to demonstrate a breadth and depth of practice, who have more than 3 years teaching experience (but without the leadership and impact needed to yet apply for HEA Senior Fellow) and are therefore supported to work towards HEA Fellow. Very experienced staff (including both academic and professional services staff) who have evidence of sustained and effective leadership and impact on learning and teaching in HE are supported to apply for HEA Senior Fellow. The HEA Fellowship Scheme aims, broadly, to:
- Offer a flexible, supported, and engaging learning experience which will enable participants to reflect upon and develop their academic practice to provide a high-quality learning experience for University of Bristol students
The HEA Scheme offers a range of workshops which explore key concepts in learning and teaching in higher education, including learning design, assessment and feedback, inclusive learning and teaching, and a range of opportunities for participants to engage with and explore the scholarship of learning and teaching (SoTL). Workshops are provided live online and asynchronously, and from January 2025 we are excited to launch in-person workshops on the HEA Scheme, to help build a stronger sense of community for HEA Scheme cohorts.
Who looks after CREATE?
The CREATE teaching team is headed up by Hannah Grist (Head of CREATE), and Lecturers in Academic Development who teach on the team include Fiona Hartley, Louise Howson, Catriona Johnson, Julian Kendell, Emilie Poletto-Lawson, and Aisling Tierney. Ros O’Leary (Head of BILT) has strategic oversight for all things CREATE and lends her experience and expertise to developing the programmes and processes. All members of the teaching team are experienced academics and lecturers from a range of different disciplinary backgrounds, with a passion for pedagogy and supporting colleagues across the University to develop their practice. In addition to their work on CREATE, the teaching team also run the Introduction to Higher Education Teaching programme, Personal Tutor development, Programme Director training, and Research Supervisor development programmes, amongst other exciting wider BILT projects and initiatives.
The CREATE programmes also enjoy the input of guest speakers and facilitators from across the University, including Kevin Haines from CALD who explores approaches to teaching in International Classrooms, Zoe Pither (Head of Student Inclusion) who shares experience on EDI in teaching and learning, Alvin Birdi (APVC Education Innovation and Enhancement) on decolonisation, Chris Preist (University Academic Director of Sustainability) who explores questions of sustainability, and colleagues from the Careers Service who share their perspectives on embedding employability into the curriculum.
The CREATE programmes are expertly supported from an administrative perspective by experienced colleagues in the Staff Development team – Sarah Armstrong, Kath Curmi, Corinne Lamplaugh, Jon Tilley, and Vickie Whitehead. The CREATE admin team mastermind all the behind-the-scenes processes needed to ensure that participants have a positive experience on their programmes.
The HEA Fellowship Scheme route in CREATE also benefits from the disciplinary expertise and supported of around 130 fabulous colleagues from across the University who have chosen to act as mentors and/or assessors on the Scheme. These colleagues support participants on the CREATE programmes by offering mentorship and sharing their experiences, guiding, and helping participants craft their portfolios by providing feedback on drafts and offering ideas for wider development. We are so delighted to have the support of these colleagues on the HEA Scheme, and know our participants really value their input and insights.
How many people have completed CREATE?
The CREATE Scheme in its current form was accredited in 2021. The table below sets out the number of staff at Bristol gaining fellowship through CREATE:
| Category of Fellowship | 20/21 | 21/22 | 22/23 | 23/24 (to date) |
| HEA Associate Fellow | 58 | 109* | 115* | 102 |
| HEA Fellow | 146 | 215 | 171 | 218 |
| HEA Senior Fellow | 10 | 7 | 16 | 18 |
| Total number | 214 | 331 | 302 | 338 |
*approx. 70 staff on PGCAP Unit 1 then go onto gain Fellowship the following year
Both the PGCAP and the HEA Fellowship Scheme result in internationally recognised teaching qualifications through our accreditation with Advance HE. Successful completers join a growing cohort of over 187,000 fellows worldwide (Advance HE, 2024).
Celebrating CREATE Participants – Outstanding Portfolio Awards
In the CREATE teaching team, we often say that the very best thing about our work is that we get to read and hear about some absolutely wonderful, innovative, exciting, and inclusive practice going on at the University of Bristol. Whilst all our participants demonstrate their commitment to high quality learning and teaching through their portfolios, some are particularly outstanding, and to recognise this, in 2022 we developed five categories of awards for which we nominate portfolios submitted for assessment through CREATE:
- Outstanding HEA Associate Fellow Award
- Outstanding HEA Fellow Award
- Outstanding HEA Senior Fellow Award
- Outstanding PGCAP Unit 1 Award
- Outstanding PGCAP Unit 2 Award
Nominations and their associated portfolios are reviewed by Tansy Jessop, our PVC Education, who decides the winners, and these are announced at the Bristol Teaching Awards celebration in early June. Winners are presented with a lovely certificate and a £50.00 Bookshop.org token (an online bookshop with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops). The award winner announcements for 2024 are forthcoming at the time of writing this blog, but please feel free to check out the 2023 CREATE Scheme Best Portfolio award gallery and check back on the blog later to see who won this year!
What do staff say about CREATE?
Engaging in continuing professional development in teaching and learning signifies a deep commitment to developing practice and ensuring that we offer the highest quality teaching and learning opportunities for all our students, but it is also a substantial commitment in terms of time and energy (when both are resources often in short supply for busy colleagues). We are delighted to report that feedback on the CREATE programmes is incredibly positive:
“The workshops I attended were truly captivating, educational, and motivating,” – PGCAP Participant, July 2023
“Everyone I’ve met from the team is so full of energy and kindness and generosity, and while I’m glad to be nearing the end of my Fellowship (I’ve taken an awful long time with it!) I’ll be sad not to attend any more wonderful CREATE sessions,” – HEA Scheme Participant, September 2023
“I have thoroughly enjoyed the unit and I just wanted to thank you all for your support and organization,” – PGCAP Participant, August 2023
“Thank you for a very supportive course, I have enjoyed working towards my HEA Senior Faellow and engaging with your sessions,” HEA Scheme Participant, June 2022
“I really enjoyed the whole process – much more than I thought I would. The CREATE Team were fantastic throughout and I’m sure it will have made a material difference to my practice, so thank you to all involved in the programme,” HEA Scheme Participant, July 2022
“I wanted to write and say that I really enjoyed the CREATE course and feel that I have learned a lot, and am confident that I have improved as a teacher as a result of being on this course,” – PGCAP Participant, May 2023
Next Steps for CREATE
With the launch of the new Professional Standards Framework 2023, we are currently engaged in a process of reaccrediting the CREATE Scheme. This has provided opportunities for development across both the HEA Scheme and PGCAP, drawing on feedback from participants, our External Examiner, and a range of key stakeholders from across the university. We are focussing on building on our strengths in terms of the flexibility and inclusivity our programmes offer and are also building in more opportunities to showcase innovative assessment methods and feedback practices, as well as developing our curricula to explore prominent issues in HE – for example the use of AI in higher education. Our reaccredited HEA Fellowship Scheme will launch in January 2025, and the newly accredited PGCAP Unit 1 will be first delivered in September 2025.
Interested in joining CREATE as a participant, supporting CREATE as a mentor and/or assessor, or finding out more?
If you would like to find out more about the CREATE programmes, or to join one of our programmes, please visit our website: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/bilt/staff-development/
If you are interested in becoming a mentor and/or assessor on the HEA Fellowship Scheme (and yourself are recognised as an HEA Fellow, HEA Senior Fellow, or HEA Principal Fellow) please visit this website to learn more and then drop us an email at create-asd@bristol.ac.uk to express your interest.
