2025 Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE)

The call for 2026 CATE nominations is now open and the deadline for nominations is Friday 24th October at 12:00pm (UK Tine)

Applications to be an institutional nominee

The team should submit a 1000 word internal application using the form provided: (add link) outlining how they intend to meet the two criteria send this to ltds@newcastle.ac.uk

Nominations will be reviewed at a panel meeting in November, chaired by the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education and including current Newcastle NTF/CATE winners and members of the Learning and Teaching Development Service. Teams must submit a 1000-word (maximum) application outlining how they meet the two CATE criteria to ltds@newcastle.ac.uk. Each higher education provider can submit one team that demonstrates a clear impact on teaching and learning through collaboration.

Following the panel meeting, the successful team will work with CATE mentors to develop their full submission. This final claim will be submitted to Advance HE in March 2026.

Thinking about applying?

Find out what motivated some of our CATE winners to apply, what it meant to them to learn of their success, and what advice they would give colleagues thinking of applying.

Please contact us if you'd like to speak to the team (apt.lts@newcastle.ac.uk) and we'll be happy to help you get started.

CATE Award Criteria

1: Excellence in the team’s collaborative approach

Evidence of excellence in the team’s approach to working collaboratively; commensurate with their context and the opportunities afforded by it.

This may, for example, be demonstrated by providing evidence of: 

• having a clear set of aims, objectives and rationale for the team’s approach and how the group constitutes a team and developed as a team;
• demonstrating direct engagement of students within or with the team;
• illustrating how the team has contributed to wider thematic and sector priorities, for example, assessment and feedback; retention, employability, staff development; students as partners; technology and social media;
• working collaboratively with a range of stakeholder groups;
• embedding practices across different programmes, disciplines, campuses or institutions;
• being flexible and creative in working to address unanticipated situations or events;
• measuring the impact or outcomes of collaborative work.

2: Excellence in the impact of collaborative working

Evidence of the team having a demonstrable impact on teaching and learning beyond their immediate academic or professional area.

This may, for example, be demonstrated by providing evidence of:

• the reach of the team’s work;
• the benefit or value derived from working as a team;
• the impact of supporting colleagues and/or influencing support for student learning;
• the impact on student learning or outcomes;
• the impact of any outcomes/outputs of collaborative work.

2023 CATE Winners

Congratulations to Newcastle University's recent winners SNES Employability team careers service and library, who have received the 2023 Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE).

This award recognises our exceptional colleagues who are committed to teaching, learning and student outcomes.