Why I Wrote a Teaching Fellowship Application—And Why You Might Want To

Part I: The Story

About a year and a half ago, I was on tour in the U.K. with a rock band. After a show, I found myself talking with an English musician (and fellow bassist) who turned out to be a professor in Birmingham. In the course of our conversation, I asked him what kinds of credentials mattered in the U.K. academic job market. 

“I suppose the first thing,” he said, “is having a fellowship.”

I assumed he meant funding, which seemed pretty strange. But that’s not what he meant. In the U.K., Fellowship of Advance HE is a nationally recognized professional credential for teaching and learning. In fact, for most academics in the U.K., earning Fellowship is widely expected, and nearly every university has an in-house program to support it.

When I returned to Durham (the one in North Carolina), I looked into it more seriously. I decided to pursue a Fellowship category that aligned with my experience and began preparing the application. At first, I treated it as a professional credentialing exercise—a matter of assembling documentation, drafting a narrative, and submitting it for review.

What I did not anticipate was how transformative the writing process would be.

I began by gathering materials. I assumed this would mean pulling together a few syllabi. Instead, it became an excavation. I dug through historical versions of courses, comments I had written on student work, program assessment reports, enrollment data, committee lists, and planning documents. Each time I thought I had enough, the requirements of the Fellowship pushed me back into my files.

One of the most valuable moments in my process came when I sent my first draft to my U.K. mentor. His feedback—delivered with classic English understatement—was clear: I was making claims without providing enough concrete evidence. Every assertion had to be earned. Student quotations. Data. Specific examples of change over time.

I realized I was receiving precisely the feedback I often give doctoral students about teaching statements. You cannot simply assert that you value inclusive teaching or student engagement; you have to show it.

That was humbling—and extremely useful.

Writing the application required me to make the implicit explicit. Things I had “always done” in my practice had to be named and supported. I went into the process assuming I knew my weaknesses. In fact, when I examined my work carefully, I discovered I had accumulated substantial evidence of assessment and reflection over time. I simply had not organized it systematically.

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By the time I submitted the final document, it was more than an application. It was a structured, evidence-based account of my professional practice. The credential has value in international academic markets where formal recognition of teaching is expected. But the deeper benefit was the reflection itself.

This was real professional development. I haven’t read a teaching statement quite the same way since.

Part II: What This Means for You

Advance HE offers different categories of Fellowship aligned with different kinds of teaching experience. For many graduate students and postdocs, the categories intended for earlier-career instructors may be appropriate—and TA experience is often sufficient. The key is not longevity. The key is evidence of thoughtful engagement with your teaching.

If you are going on the academic job market, you will need to write a teaching statement. Many doctoral students struggle with that genre because it does not resemble disciplinary writing. It requires you to build an argument about your teaching, supported by evidence.

The fellowship framework provides that structure. It forces you to move beyond description and into substantiation. Even if a search committee has never heard of Advance HE, they will recognize a candidate who can present a systematic, evidence-based case about their teaching.

If you’re wondering what “evidence” might mean in your case, start small. It might include

• Syllabi or assignments you revised
• Materials you created (rubrics, slides, discussion prompts)
• Observation feedback or Teaching Triangles notes
• Course evaluations—and how you responded to them
• Brief examples of student work (with permission)

These do not need to be polished or high-stakes artifacts. They are traces of your teaching practice. Most of you already have more of this than you think. If you do nothing else this week, create a folder titled “Evidence.” Gather what you have. Do not evaluate it yet or talk yourself out of adding something that might seem not good enough. Just collect it. Future you will be grateful.

This summer, I will convene a writing group through the Certificate in College Teaching for advanced Ph.D. students and postdocs interested in exploring Advance HE Fellowship. We’ll write together, exchange structured feedback, and help shape your experience—including your TA work—into a clear, evidence-based professional narrative. The narrative you develop can also serve as the foundation of the teaching statement required for the Certificate in College Teaching portfolio.

Whether you apply for a Fellowship this year or later, the discipline of doing the work will immediately strengthen your teaching statement and job materials. Join us!

Learn more and register for the Summer 2026 Advance HE Fellowship Writing Group Information Session

Author

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Hugh Crumley, Ph.D. 

Hugh Crumley is Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and Director of College Teaching Programs in Duke University’s Graduate School. He founded and directs the Certificate in College Teaching and leads the Preparing Future Faculty program. Hugh is a recently minted Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and works with doctoral students and postdocs across disciplines to develop reflective, evidence-based approaches to teaching in higher education.