National teaching award for medic
25 June 2009
Dr Ged Byrne, Hospital Dean for Clinical Studies at The University of Manchester, is one of 50 lecturers and support staff from across the UK to have been awarded a prestigious Individual National Teaching Fellowships (NTF) from The Higher Education Academy.
The award winners were chosen from 203 nominations submitted by further and higher education institutions across England and Northern Ireland and will each receive an award of £10,000. The award may be used for Fellows’ professional development in teaching and learning or aspects of pedagogy.
Dr Byrne was appointed senior lecturer and consultant surgeon in Manchester in 2001 and Hospital Dean for Clinical Studies in 2004. During his eclectic training as an academic surgeon in Glasgow, India and the West Midlands he developed a keen interest in postgraduate surgical teaching and was Secretary and President of the Association of Surgeons in Training. He combines clinical practice as a surgeon and responsibility for delivery of the undergraduate curriculum to 450 Manchester medical students with the innovation, development and evaluation of high-quality learning and assessment tools.
As Hospital Dean for Clinical Studies, Dr Byrne has successfully increased his local educational budget by 500% in five years and enhanced student learning by overseeing the conversion of two local district general hospitals into Associated Teaching Hospitals, providing a significant expansion in learning opportunities for healthcare students. Dr Byrne passionately believes in personalised learning; he has introduced an evidence-based individualised programme of teaching for poorly performing students and a student appraisal system for medical undergraduates
Dr Byrne is best known as the Director and co-founder of the Universities Medical Assessment Partnership (UMAP). Originally a collaboration of five medical schools funded by a project grant from the Higher Education Funding Council, UMAP is now a partner-funded collaboration of 15 medical schools which develops high-quality assessment items for summative medical examinations. UMAP has been commended as a beacon of excellence in assessment practice by many national and international educational bodies and has been responsible for training more than 1,000 clinical teachers in the process of item writing and quality assurance.
Dr Byrne has recently established an academy of healthcare education in South Manchester, which he sees as a model for multi-professional healthcare educational delivery for the future. By creating a partnership of local community, local healthcare providers and the University, he believes that higher quality learning environments for adult learners will be created, ultimately allowing a sustainable improvement in patient safety and care.
The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) is part of an overall Academy programme to raise the status of learning and teaching in higher education. It comprises two strands: Individual National Teaching Fellowship Awards, and Projects. It is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland (DELNI).
The individual strand of the scheme aims to raise the profile of learning and teaching, recognise and celebrate individuals who make an outstanding impact on the student learning experience, and provide a national focus for institutional teaching and learning excellence schemes.
Further information about the NTFS
Ends
Notes to editors
The Higher Education Academy supports the sector in providing the best possible learning experience for all students. It does this by:
- providing national leadership in developing and disseminating evidence-informed practice about enhancing the student learning experience;
- operating as an independent broker, enabling expertise to be shared across institutions and subject areas;
- working at multiple levels, with individual academics, subject communities, departments, faculties and institutions;
- working across all parts of the UK, recognising the distinctive policy contexts and priorities of the devolved administrations but also providing opportunities to share expertise among them.
The Academy is an independent organisation funded by grants from the four UK higher education funding bodies, grant and contract income for specific initiatives and subscriptions from higher education institutions.
Further information about the Higher Education Academy
For further information contact:
Aeron Haworth
Media Officer
Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences
The University of Manchester
Tel: +44 (0)161 275 8383
Email: aeron.haworth@manchester.ac.uk
