Lancaster University teachers receive national excellence awards

Professor Eric Evans, Professor of Social History, and Dr Moira Peelo, Co-ordinator of the Student Learning Development Centre at Lancaster University, have each been presented with a national teaching award.

Professor Evans and Dr Peelo were among 50 lecturers and learning support staff in England and Northern Ireland to receive awards worth £50,000 for their excellence in teaching. The 2004 National Teaching Fellowships were awarded at a gala dinner at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.

Eric Evans has had a long and distinguished career in which he has made significant contributions to the teaching and learning of history from school right through to post-graduate university level. He will use his award to develop the links between the way history is taught in schools and in universities.

Moira Peelo has played a major role in the development of academic support for students at Lancaster and has had considerable influence on the wider HE community in the area of academic support through her publications. She will use her award to develop resources to help improve the supervision of research students.

The £2.5 million National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS), now in its fifth year, recognises and rewards outstanding teachers or learning support staff in higher education.

The Scheme is managed by the new Higher Education Academy and funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland.

The 50 winners were selected in national competition from a total of 249 nominations submitted by higher education institutions across England and Northern Ireland. Each new Fellow has been awarded £50,000, to be used for projects that will make a significant contribution to learning and teaching.

Lancaster University has achieved the unique distinction of having winners in each of the five years of the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme to date. Previous winners of the Fellowships are Professor Mick Short (Linguistics) 2000, Susan Armitage (HEDC) 2001, Dr Mike Winstanley (History) 2002, and Professor Amanda Chetwynd ( Department of Mathematics and Statistics) last year.