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Led by Professor Dawne Irving-Bell, Arden University’s National Teaching Repository team is one of just 15 recognised across UK higher education this year.
Arden University has won a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) for its leading role in the National Teaching Repository - a free, open-access platform used by educators in more than 200 countries and territories.
Established in 2016 to celebrate the power of teamwork in Higher Education, AdvanceHE’s CATE Award is the collaborative sister to the National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS).
Presented by AdvanceHE, the UK’s professional body for higher education, a CATE Award recognises work that has had a demonstrable impact on teaching and learning across the sector.
For the NTFS, UK higher education institutions may put forward up to three candidates per year. However, for the CATE Award, the limit is only one team per institution per annum.
Selected from several hundred nominations received annually, a total of only 15 awards are made following a rigorous review process which extends across several months.
Arden University's victory comes in the university's 10th anniversary year. The CATE scheme, established in 2016 to highlight the vital role of teamwork in shaping higher education, is celebrating the same milestone.
Many voices with a shared purpose - the army behind the idea
Led by Professor Dawne Irving-Bell, the winning team includes Arden University colleague Professor Brian Smith and visiting Professor Sue Beckingham, along with academics and professional services staff from eight further UK Higher Education institutions, and affiliates working across more than 200 institutions globally.
As a multi‑institutional team, everyone involved holds the shared belief that excellent learning and teaching should be visible, protected, citable and accessible.
The National Teaching Repository (NTR) was created to support and recognise the best in innovative teaching practice for the benefit of HE students everywhere while ensuring the creators of high-quality learning resources receive appropriate recognition for their work.
The idea took shape after an AdvanceHE Conference, where having discussed how she helped colleagues to capture impact of their practice to secure promotion and Fellowship, Professor Irving-Bell was inundated with requests from colleagues to share their resources.
Recognising a sector need, an idea emerged. With a modest amount of funding, and the support and enthusiasm of like-minded colleagues, the NTR was born.
Designed to harness the power of non‑traditional research formats including teaching activities, infographics, posters, podcasts, videos and toolkits to disseminate useful, practice‑based strategies, the NTR is an open, accessible place where educators at any career stage, in any role, can share “what works” without facing traditional publishing barriers. Anyone submitting material retains ownership of their intellectual property via a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and Creative Commons (CC) licensing.
Over the years, the NTR has supported hundreds of thousands of colleagues. For example, when the Covid-19 pandemic forced institutions online, the repository became a lifeline, giving educators worldwide fast access to proven approaches for distance learning. Later, in response to the war in Ukraine, it supplied open, reusable materials that kept teaching going in areas where power and connectivity were intermittent.
Global recognition
Recording more than 1.14 million views and nearly 275,000 downloads by colleagues from more than 200 countries and territories, including 93% of the UN member states, and 86% of the UN’s least developed countries, the NTR’s extensive reach and impact earned an invitation to present at the UNESCO World Higher Education Conference. It has also secured further international acclaim by winning a coveted OEGlobal International Award for Excellence in Open Collaboration, where it was recognised as a “truly exemplary initiative”.
"To be one of only a handful of teams recognised nationally by AdvanceHE is a huge honour”, explained Professor Irving-Bell. “In our team, every voice matters. Every perspective adds value, and every strength is recognised. Through our work we challenge inequity and seek to widen participation, always with the ultimate aim of enhancing every student’s experience.”
Professor Carl Lygo, Vice Chancellor and CEO of Arden University, added: "Outstanding learning and teaching in higher education regularly goes unrecognised unless it is captured by external metrics. The National Teaching Repository changes that. It turns scholarly teaching into a visible, citable, career-enhancing contribution, delivering a real impact for colleagues on teaching-focused and third-space pathways, who have historically had few ways to evidence the reach of their work.
"What strikes me about this team is that they excel not just in what they have built, but in how they have built it: non-hierarchical, values-led and genuinely generous. For Arden University to be recognised in this way, in our 10th year and at the first time of asking, is a real source of pride."
Having begun in 2019 with one person helping others to secure evidence of the impact of their practice, the NTR has become a global, award-winning, values‑driven community that supports educators in confidently disseminating their work, with the primary aim of helping students to thrive.
Not a team to rest on their laurels, they are already working on the next phase: a Global Teaching Repository, that they hope will use AI to overcome the challenge language barriers create for learners, to access teaching and learning.
Arden University’s first AdvanceHE Award will be presented at a special ceremony in Edinburgh on 24th September 2026.
