Dr. Graham Pike, VIU's Dean of International Education, and Heather Pastro, Vice-Chair of VIU's Senate, accepted a finalist award from Advance HE's 2018 Global Teaching Excellence Award gala event in Scotland.
July 19, 2018 - 3:00pm
Vancouver Island University is now recognized as a world leader in teaching excellence.
At a special ceremony in Edinburgh, Scotland, on July 18, UK-based Advance HE announced the overall winner for its 2018 Global Teaching Excellence Award, Canada’s McMaster University, and presented trophies and certificates to VIU and the other 16 finalists from six continents. Here’s what Advance HE had to say about VIU:
“The institution’s commitment to social responsibility, and particularly to Indigenous people, shines through the submission. The priority given to teaching and learning can be seen as having the same root – the transformative power of higher education is most effective when learners experience high-quality teaching.”
Dr. Ralph Nilson, VIU President and Vice-Chancellor, says this accolade wouldn’t have been possible without the institution’s dedicated faculty, who put enormous effort into creating the kind of learning environment that achieves international recognition.
“The most important relationship at this institution is the relationship between the teacher and the learner, and as a regional university with a primary focus on teaching, this recognition is a clear demonstration of the quality of the education available at VIU,” he says. “I’d also like to give a nod to the University’s Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning for continually raising our expectations of ourselves in terms of the learning environment we are creating, and all staff at VIU, not just faculty, for the institution-wide effort that gets put into a culture of support and success for every VIU student.”
Dr. Graham Pike, VIU’s Dean of International Education; Heather Pastro, Vice-Chair of VIU’s Senate; and Stephanie Pastro, a Social Sciences student representative, attended the ceremony in Edinburgh. Here’s what they had to say:
Graham: “At VIU, through our supports for Indigenous and international students and our programs that pursue achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we are able to show how a young, regional university can foster global citizenship on our campuses and provide leadership on a global stage. We should all be justifiably proud of our achievements.”
Heather: “We learned about a shared understanding from universities around the world about excellence in the leadership of learning and teaching, and excellence in student support. VIU’s presence on this global stage reflects the hard work and commitment of so many instructors and staff across all faculties and departments over many years.”
Stephanie: “As a student, it is brilliant to see so many institutions working to better facilitate learning through their teaching practices, as it is students who directly benefit from such initiatives. Engaging with representatives from each of these global leaders in teaching has given me confidence in the value of my education and the institution where I have chosen to pursue it.”
Tags: Teaching and Learning
