About
Advancing Teaching is a global initiative designed to improve the support, reward and recognition of teaching and learning at universities across the world. It brings together a range of activities to advance these goals, each of which are driven and supported by a global network of university leaders, change makers and experts in teaching and learning from across the world. These activities include: the development of a Framework to inform the design of university academic career pathways; a study to map global best practice in the field; a survey that captures faculty views on the culture and status of teaching at universities reforming how they reward teaching; and annual meetings that bring together this global network.
All resources produced by the Advancing Teaching initiative are open-source and freely available for use, adoption or adaptation by anyone in the global higher education community.
Who we are
The Advancing Teaching network brings together university leaders, professional bodies and pedagogical researchers from across the world with a shared goal to improve the reward and recognition of university teaching. The activities are directed by members of the network and led by Dr Ruth Graham.
Initiative sponsors
All network activities – including studies, reviews, annual meetings and project publications – are sponsored by participating universities, professional bodies and government agencies. The Royal Academy of Engineering was the major sponsor for the development of the Career Framework for University Teaching.
Timeline of the Advancing Teaching initiative
The Advancing Teaching initiative brings together university leaders and pedagogical researchers from across the world with a shared goal to improve the reward and recognition of university teaching. The timeline below outlines key activities of the initiative, from the launch of Advancing Teaching in 2014 through to the most recent project, the 2025 Teaching Cultures Survey.
All Advancing Teaching projects have been guided by the priorities of network members and have included the Career Framework for University Teaching, the Roadmap for Change, the Teaching Cultures Survey and the Global Mapping study. The network also comes together for regular face-to-face meetings to share progress, ideas and experiences. The discussion topics and feedback from these network meetings have also served as a springboard for all of the projects and studies undertaken by the Advancing Teaching collaboration.
Timeline of the Advancing Teaching initiative
The initiative was seeded in 2014 with the publication of a small-scale survey of UK academics that explored perceptions around the reward and recognition of university teaching. The survey findings were the springboard for the development of the Career Framework for University Teaching, a tool to guide and support the career progression of academics on the basis of their contribution to teaching and learning. Following four years of development and piloting at universities across the world, the Career Framework was published in 2018 and has subsequently been adopted and adapted by over 50 universities worldwide. Annual meetings of this growing network have been held since 2016.
More recent projects have been guided by the activities and priorities of network members and have included the Roadmap for Change and the Teaching Cultures Survey.
Further information about the timeline for the Advancing Teaching initiative is provided below.