Celebrating outstanding contributions to teaching and learning

Nine members of staff have been awarded prestigious Bangor University Teaching Fellowships. Teaching Fellowships recognise the importance of exceptional teaching and learning within the University, and are awarded based on evidence of excellence within five categories: Enhancement, Innovation, Impact, Scholarship, and Leadership. 

Nominations for Teaching Fellowships are made by Heads of Schools, and their evidence is reviewed by the Teaching Fellowships Panel, chaired by Professor Nicky Callow, PVC for Teaching and Learning. The Panel is composed of the College Directors of Teaching and Learning, members of the Centre for Enhancement in Learning & Teaching (CELT), and representatives from the Students’ Union.

Professor Nicky Callow, PVC for Teaching and Learning said,

"This year’s Fellowship recipients embody excellence in teaching and learning within Bangor University. It is without doubt that these recipients have transformed the learning experience for individual students, cohorts of students, modules, and programmes. More than that, these award recipients have positively enhanced practice within, and in many cases, beyond our University. Whilst Bangor University Teaching Fellowships are always a special recognition of excellence, to have received this award under the circumstances of this past year, is truly exceptional."

This year's Teaching Fellowships for the College of Arts, Humanities and Business have been awarded to:

Riaz Anwar - Lecturer in Accounting

Riaz Anwar is an outstanding lecturer.  She constantly receives praise from the student body for ensuring that student wellbeing is at the heart of everything she does.  Her commitment to excellence is demonstrated by Riaz becoming a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) in 2020, and also in being shortlisted for the Student Teacher-Led Award (STLA) in 2021. 

During the pandemic, Riaz took on the role of Blended Learning Lead for the Business School, and has been a great support to her colleagues in this area, running school wide training sessions, showing examples of best practice, and holding drop-in clinics to help other academics overcome the complexities of this area. 

Riaz genuinely cares about the learning experiences and future goals of her students, and she is both admired and deeply valued by her colleagues. 

Professor Bruce Vanstone, Head of Bangor Business School

Riaz said, "I'm delighted and honoured to be the recipient of a Bangor University Fellowship award. 

My ethos is making students responsible for their own learning by creating an exceptionally high level of engagement in the classroom. I encourage students to interact throughout lectures by means of using bite sized activities. My relaxed approach makes learning more interesting and ultimately creates an environment in which students feel safe to express their views without being concerned about making mistakes. 

I love developing innovative ways of engaging with my students to ensure my sessions are interactive. For this purpose, I often draw on my passion for accounting and use my professional experience to provide practical examples. This enables students to consider the impact of current events on accounting practice.   

I was appointed Blended Learning Lead at Bangor Business School at the start of the 2020/21 academic year. This enabled me to draw on my extensive experience of working with technology to support my colleagues in using technology to create a learning environment that promotes interactive and engaging participation."

Dr Tim Holmes - Lecturer in Criminology and Criminal Justice

Tim has always delivered popular modules on transnational crime, imprisonment and punishment in society. However, his work on developing the policing programmes is outstanding. His efforts are invaluable for the School, the University and for North Wales Police more broadly. Awarding him the Teaching Fellowship reflects his achievements and rewards his effort and commitment.

Professor Peter Shapely, Head of School of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences

Tim added, "Thank you for selecting me to receive this award, the last year of teaching has been both challenging and rewarding in many ways. When the policing degree programmes were first proposed pre-Covid, we envisaged a truly collaborative programme working with North Wales Police. I am pleased to say that we have maintained this ethos through lockdowns, validation of the policing degrees and starting our first year of teaching. Working with Pro.essor Martina Feilzer, Julie Brierly, Steve Nash, Rob Darnell and the North Wales Police trainers and staff as a joint development team on this has been a great experience."

Dr Eirin Sanoudaki - Senior Lecturer in Linguistics

Dr Eirini Sanoudaki is an exceptional educator who goes above and beyond in teaching and supporting our students, and so the school is delighted that she has been awarded this fellowship. 

Her teaching style is dynamic, passionate and fun and is uniformly well-received by students. Recent evaluations for her teaching include comments like: “Eirini's teaching methods are excellent" meaning “everybody is able to contribute...without feeling nervous”. She makes classes “very engaging” and during Blended Learning she found innovative ways to ensure students interact online while learning about linguistics.  

A native speaker of Greek, since starting working at Bangor Eirini has learnt Welsh fluently. Anything she can do through Welsh, she will, from writing emails to teaching. She is also active in promoting the university via Welsh language media and public engagements. Eirini contributes hugely to a visible multilingual community within the school and the wider university, which was recognized recently by her winning a national prize for using Welsh in the workplace.   

Part of Eirini’s mission at Bangor is to create and sustain a community of postgraduate research students (PGRs) across the school, in her current role as Director of Postgraduate Research. The net result of Eirini’s efforts is an increase over time in PGR satisfaction within the school during her watch, as evidenced by PRES survey results year on year. She has managed to ensure a consistency of experience to the school’s PGRs, providing them with the support and structure they need to thrive. 

Suffice to say, Eirini has had a positive and lasting impact on our students’ experience of Bangor through her tireless work, positivity and collegiality, and she will doubtless continue to do so. The school is very proud of Eirini – da iawn ti. 

Dr Peredur Webb-Davies, co-acting Head of School of Languages, Literatures, Linguistics and Media

Eirini added, "I am honoured to be awarded a Bangor University Teaching Fellowship and touched by my colleagues’ kindness in nominating me. Bangor University has been my multilingual, multicultural home for over a decade, during which I learnt so much from the students I teach, the postgraduate researchers I support and from my wonderful colleagues.  I couldn’t imagine a nicer place to work, learn and grow!"

Congratulations to you all!

Publication date: 15 July 2021