The National Teaching Fellowships are awarded for excellence in higher education teaching and learner support and are highly competitive. Jane was selected from over 180 nominations from across Wales, England and Northern Ireland.

Jane is a qualified nurse, midwife and health visitor with a range of professional service experience prior to her entry to teaching. Her teaching career spans over 25 years, from joining the School of Health as a community care lecturer she has held roles including practice teaching in the National Health Service, practice management for adult nursing, and Director of Quality. In that role she oversaw assessment, admissions and placements and chaired the learning and teaching, curriculum quality and admissions committees. In her current senior role Jane manages the learning and teaching remit, including both staff and programmes.

Jane is engaged with the institutional agenda from a number of perspectives, enabling her to share and benefit from best practice. She is committed to pedagogical practice from strategy to delivery, developing students and teachers to their full potential. She sustains a postgraduate teaching load, enabling her to stay close to the student experience as a practitioner, as well as managing a range of programmes. Her managerial role includes directing academic strategy in the College of Human and Health Sciences within Swansea University.

Jane is also currently the Superintendent of Assessment for Swansea University, overseeing cases of unfair practice from departmental and college level to university panels of investigation. She has recently led a successful bid to secure external funding for the development of an electronic resource to promote academic integrity in the student population. She leads the unfair practice working group, taking the academic integrity agenda forward institutionally.

With an academic background in public health, Jane is a public health assessor with the United Kingdom Public Health Register (UKPHR). She leads a postgraduate programme in public health and provides bespoke education to the sector. She has used placement learning at postgraduate level for many years and has a keen interest in employability based assessment.

Jane describes herself as having enjoyed “a colourful and challenging career working across the academic range, with gifted teachers, innovative assessors and students who both inspire and engage.” Jane firmly believes that lifelong learning is not just for students. She describes the NTFS Award as “an absolute honour as the recognition and esteem of peers in higher education. The Award will enable me to make some innovative and creative developments which will not only benefit me, but my colleagues and my institution”. Her plans currently include developing a resource to support teacher development and exploring alternative assessment styles.

Professor Alan Speight, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Student Experience) said: “Our congratulations go to Jane for this excellent achievement and national recognition for her outstanding contribution to learning and teaching not only within the University but also in the wider community.”