Two academics awarded prestigious National Teaching Fellowships

Two Kingston University academics have been recognised with prestigious National Teaching Fellowships by Advance HE for their contributions to inclusive teaching and enhancing the student experience.

School Director of Learning and Teaching in the Design School Clare Conway and Associate Professor of Pharmacy Thuy Mason are two of just 55 educators from across the UK to receive the coveted annual accolade this year for transforming how higher education is delivered.

The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme celebrates and recognises individuals who have made an outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession in higher education.

Pharmacist honoured for educational leadership and inclusive practice

Thuy Mason, who is also a registered pharmacist and has been at Kingston since 2006, has been recognised for leading creative, resourceful educational innovation across healthcare – identifying emerging educational needs and translating them into impactful solutions to improve learning quality and prepare future-ready healthcare professionals.

She pioneered simulation-based education, including a remote consultation model in 2013 for large cohorts of pharmacy students that strengthened communication skills, clinical judgement and confidence – these becoming vital to the graduates when delivering healthcare services during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A hallmark of Thuy’s educational innovation is her strategic use of game-based approaches in two distinct areas: curriculum delivery and student recruitment. Within the curriculum, she developed immersive learning activities that supported inclusive learning and enhanced student engagement, contributing to improvements across all student experience-related themes in the National Student Survey (NSS). She also pioneered interactive game-based experiences for MPharm Open Days, creating a distinctive applicant experience that contributed to substantial growth in student recruitment.

During the pandemic, Thuy developed realistic mock-up medicine packaging that enabled all students to replicate an authentic pharmacy dispensing environment from home, helping to mitigate the reduced placement-based opportunities to develop dispensing skills. Her educational leadership and inclusive practice have been recognised through multiple awards and finalist nominations. Her focus on equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) has also led her to introduce inclusive practices that enable healthcare students to explore identity, belonging and health inequalities.

Thuy said she feels a sense of duty to give the best possible experience to her students. “Where I grew up outside of the UK, I didn’t have access to resources or opportunities so that has always stuck with me and been a driving force in giving the very best I can to the students I teach. I taught the first wave of nurse prescribers and that’s really where I discovered my passion for teaching.”

Educational innovation and interdisciplinary collaborations key for design expert

Clare Conway, who has 28 years’ professional creative industry experience alongside her nine years as a full-time academic at Kingston University as well as returning to study a postgraduate degree at the University in 2014, has been recognised for sector-leading educational innovation and interdisciplinary collaborations to prepare students for a modern, fluid workforce.

In 2017 she founded Storybox Collective, a global open-access, co-curricular learning community bringing together students, alumni and staff across vastly different disciplines from fine art and creative writing to sustainable product design to bridge the gap between study and professional portfolio careers.

The initiative has grown exponentially from 10 to 184 undergraduate, postgraduate students and alumni across 10 disciplines, producing more than 220 creative outputs.

She has led high-profile collaborations with world-class cultural institutions including the National Trust, Glyndebourne Opera House and the William Morris Society, were the first researchers to work with Wilton’s Music Hall archive and has seen student work acquired by the British Music Hall Society and Pollock’s Toy Museum – while one undergraduate’s typeface design was commercially licensed by Tate.

As a Kingston University Town House Fellow, Clare supported colleagues to embed interdisciplinary learning into different courses across the four faculties and co-led a groundbreaking collaboration with the Department of Pharmacy to embed design-thinking and creative workshops into the science curriculum alongside the Hunterian Museum – bringing together science and art and enabling students to discover new ways of learning and enhancing progression. She also won Kingston University’s Provost Award in 2022.

She is committed to fostering inclusive learning communities where students feel a strong sense of belonging and are empowered to shape their own futures. She believes meaningful learning happens when people come together across disciplines, share different ways of thinking and creating, and build communities that enable both individual and collective growth. She has also previously won an Academic Impact Award for Best Postgraduate Teacher.

Clare said originally joining Kingston University as a mature student, before going into academia, was influential for her teaching journey. “While some people instinctively know how to teach, I believe effective teaching also comes from understanding different approaches to engaging diverse groups of students. Storybox Collective is centred on enhancing the student experience, and collaborating with students, alumni and colleagues on projects like this is exactly why I do what I do.”

Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education Joanna MacDonnell said the awards were a source of pride for the University. "We are all delighted to celebrate the recognition of Claire and Thuy through the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme. At Kingston University, our commitment to transformative, student-centred education is at the heart of our mission and both our award winners exemplify this vision, fostering inclusive, innovative, and empowering learning environments to help our students thrive. Their outstanding and inspiring contributions reflect the highest standards of higher education practice and are a source of immense pride for our university community."

Thuy and Clare will collect their National Teaching Fellowships at an award ceremony on Thursday 24 September in Edinburgh.

• Find out more about Advance HE's National Teaching Fellowship scheme.