Dr. Hayat Ali Receives the Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK

Dr. Hayat Ali, Assistant Professor at UoB College of Information Technology was awarded the Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK (SFHEA), to become the second UoB faculty member to receive this prestigious fellowship.

Dr. Hayat qualified for the fellowship in consideration of her contributions to the Academic Practice Development Program, and her endeavors to implement the principles of teaching methodologies in line with modern theories in class, and her assistance to peers to apply best practices.

Director of the UoB Unit for Teaching Excellence and Leadership, Dr. Sanaa Al-Mansoori congratulated Dr. Hayat for receiving the certificate and said it manifests abilities of the faculty members to move up the ladder of fellowship awarded by the Academy according to difficult and accurate requirements. Dr. Al-Mansoori was the first UoB faculty member to receive the award.

Tens of UoB faculty members received the Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) after they received the Post Graduate Diploma in Academic Practice (PCAP) offered by York St. John University, UK, for six years, but UoB became independent in awarding this fellowship program to its faculty members.

The Academic Practice Development Program aims to provide faculty members with the skills and knowledge required to facilitate learning and teaching by virtue of training them on the latest methodologies and strategies of university teaching and assessment.

On her part, Dr. Hayat expressed her satisfaction for receiving the senior fellowship, and added it crowns her relentless endeavors of self and collective development in the field of teaching methodologies. She added: “I joined the Academic Practice Development Program of York St. John University in 2007. I became a mentor in the program, and a member of the teaching committee when UoB became independent in awarding the certification”. She also said:” I benefited greatly from the experience, which contributed to enhancing my teaching methods and encouraged many of my colleagues to join the program”.

She also said that acquiring this fellowship constitutes a motive for further efforts and work in the field of continuing development, and expressed hope to assist in transferring the UoB experience to other Arab and GCC universities.

Dr. Hayat Ali is a holder of Ph.D. in e-participation from Manchester University in 2010, and a Master degree in Computer Sciences from Wolverhampton University in the UK in 2004. She has many research contributions in the field of using technology to serve the public sector that were published in arbitrated journals.