About the Teaching Excellence Awards (NTFS and CATE)

The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) and Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) are annual competitions run by Advance HE to identify, recognise and celebrate the UK’s most outstanding individuals and teams having an impact on student outcomes, student experience and the Higher Education sector.

National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) 

National Teaching Fellowship celebrates outstanding individual impact. It celebrates and recognises individuals who have made an outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession in higher education.

The award has been running since 2000 and there are now nearly 900 National Teaching Fellows, with up to 55 individuals receiving the award each year. On gaining the award, Fellows play an ongoing role in enhancing teaching and learning within their institution, the HE sector and further afield. A Higher Education Institution can nominate up to three individuals each year. Scotland joined the scheme in 2018, enabling colleagues in Scottish institutions to be eligible to apply for recognition as an NTF.

University of Edinburgh National Teaching Fellows:

2022: Catherine Bovill (Institute for Academic Development) Professor Catherine Bovill | Advance HE 

2020: Michael Seery (Chemistry) (left UoE) 

2019: Heather McQueen (BioSciences)

2018: Catriona Bell (Veterinary Medicine) (left UoE) Dr Catriona Bell | Advance HE

Joined University of Edinburgh with an NTF:

Chris Sangwin (Mathematics)

Leah Macaden (Nursing)

Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) 

Celebrates outstanding collaborative impact. It recognises and rewards collaborative work that has had a demonstrable impact on teaching and learning. Introduced in 2016, the scheme highlights the key role of teamwork in higher education. The scheme has been running in Scotland since 2018 and each institution can nominate one team per year.

About the nominations process

We are currently updating the process for applying for NTFS and CATE at the University of Edinburgh and hope to provide more information later in the 2025-26 academic year. We will open the nomination and application process again in the summer of 2026 for applications to be submitted in spring 2027.

Enquiries

To enquire about CATE and NTFS at Edinburgh, please contact Professor Catherine Bovill in the first instance. All enquiries will be treated confidentially.

Professor Catherine Bovill or Dr Jenny Scoles

Email: catherine.bovill@ed.ac.uk

Email: jenny.scoles@ed.ac.uk