Overview
Advancing Teaching is a global initiative designed to improve the reward and recognition of university teaching in academic careers. It brings together a range of activities to advance this goal, each of which is supported by a global network of university leaders, change-makers and experts in university teaching from across the world. These activities include: the development of a Framework to inform the design of university academic career pathways; a study mapping highly regarded practice in the field; a survey that captures academics’ views on how university teaching is valued and rewarded at institutions reforming how they reward university teaching; a new study examining the institutional strategies and conditions associated with effective change; and regular face-to-face meetings that bring together this global network. All resources produced by the Advancing Teaching initiative are open-access and freely available for use, adoption or adaptation by anyone in the global higher education community.
Who we are
The Advancing Teaching network brings together university leaders, institutional change agents, higher education organisations and pedagogical experts from across the world with a shared goal to improve the reward and recognition of university teaching. Its activities are shaped by the priorities and contributions of members of the network and led by Dr Ruth Graham.
Funding and support
Advancing Teaching activities are funded and supported by participating universities and partner organisations, with arrangements varying between projects. The Royal Academy of Engineering was the major sponsor of the development of the Career Framework for University Teaching between 2014 and 2018.
Timeline
The timeline below shows how Advancing Teaching has developed from its establishment in 2014 through to its latest study, launched in late 2026.
The major strands of work include the Career Framework for University Teaching, the Roadmap for Change, the Teaching Cultures Survey, the Global Mapping study and the new study identifying the drivers of effective change. Together, these activities have moved from developing practical tools to support institutional reform, through mapping highly regarded practice and tracking change across the sector, to understanding more deeply the strategies and conditions that underpin effective change in practice.
These activities have been shaped by the priorities and experiences of the Advancing Teaching community. The network also comes together for regular face-to-face meetings to share progress, ideas and experiences, with these discussions helping to shape these and other cross-institutional activities.
Timeline of the Advancing Teaching initiative
The initiative was seeded in 2014 with the publication of a small-scale survey of UK academics that explored perceptions around the reward and recognition of university teaching. The survey findings were the springboard for the development of the Career Framework for University Teaching, a tool to guide and support the career progression of academics on the basis of their contribution to teaching and learning. Following four years of development and piloting at universities across the world, the Career Framework was published in 2018 and has subsequently been adopted and adapted by over 50 universities worldwide. Annual meetings of this growing network have been held since 2016.
More recent projects have been guided by the activities and priorities of network members and have included the Roadmap for Change and the Teaching Cultures Survey.
Further information about the timeline for the Advancing Teaching initiative is provided below.