Scholarship at Sussex

Find out more about what scholarship looks like for academics on the Education and Scholarship (E&S) pathway.

Education scholarship at Sussex

A key goal of education scholarship is to enhance the student learning experience. This can include:

• sharing your reflections, insights, or examples of effective practice
• enhancing teaching through curriculum design, inclusive pedagogy, or assessment
• contributing to the development of others through mentoring, peer review, leadership roles, or external networks.

Scholarship can also support the development and implementation of insitutional strategic priorities, such as our Access and Participation Plan, and feed into our institutional response to national frameworks such as the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) and the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF).

Developing and demonstrating your scholarship

You can demonstrate developing your scholarship identity (how you define yourself as a scholar), building a scholarship profile (how your work is seen and shared), and growing your sphere of influence (within your School, Faculty, the wider university, and externally). This list is a guide to inspire and support your development.

• Outputs (e.g. publications, presentations, case studies)

  Scholarship outputs can include a range of contributions. For instance:

  • books and edited collections
  • journal articles and conference proceedings
  • textbooks and opinion pieces
  • podcasts, blogs, and other media
  • editorial board roles
  • professional body involvement.

  
  Read about Prof Wendy Garnham's reflections on editorial scholarship.

• Strategy and leadership

  Leadership in scholarship involves contributing to strategic educational initiatives and advancing best practice. For example:

  • curriculum design/redesign
  • engaging with and/or facilitating Continuing Professional Development (CPD) resources
  • cross-institutional initiatives centred on education and student experience
  • internal or national awards
  • sector priorities and Advance HE accreditation.

  
  Read about Dr Luis Ponce Cuspinera's reflections on curriculum redesign, or Dr Lorraine Smith's Senior Fellowship application, or Tab Betts' setting up a higher education network.

• External engagement (e.g. networks, panels, collaborations)

  External engagement enhances your scholarship profile and sector impact. It can include:

  • organising conferences, symposia, or seminars
  • participating in networks or media outreach
  • quality assurance roles (e.g. external examiner, validation panels)
  • leading collaborative, high-impact education projects.

  
  Read about Graeme Pedlingham's time working for the Office for Students.

• Funding

  Finding pockets of funding for scholarship can be challenging, and funding for scholarship is not always needed, however there are some great examples of colleagues at Sussex who have secured funding to support their scholarship initiatives.

  Read about Dr Xiangming Tao and Josephine Van-Ess securing the Education and Innovation Fund.

Scholarship opportunities at Sussex

There are various ways in which the University can support your scholarship. These include: 

Learning Matters, which provides a space for sharing scholarship and best practice in teaching, learning and assessment at Sussex in a range of formats.  

The Education Newsletter, which brings together the latest updates, opportunities, events and inspiring education practice from across the University. 

The Strategic Scholarship Fellows Programme, through which Education and Scholarship colleagues can lead or contribute to research that directly informs institutional decision making. 

The Senior Fellowship Programme, a fully accreditted and fee free institutional route to Senior Fellowship of Advance HE for colleagues with a sustained record of leading or influencing teaching and learning practice in higher education. 

See our Staff development, awards and recognition page for more opportunties.