Education in Practice Network

This is part of a series of posts celebrating the champions of our institutional Advance HE fellowship recognition scheme, Beacon. Beacon has awarded more than 1000 fellowships since its launch in 2015. Beacon is led by Marios Hadjianastasis and Jamie Morris. Advance HE have recently helped us celebrated these milestones on their blog (link).

We spoke to Dr Mehran Eskandari Torbaghan SFHEA, a Lecturer in Infrastructure Asset Management in the Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering, at the University of Birmingham. Mehran successfully completed our PGCert course which awarded him FHEA, and went on to achieve SFHEA through the Beacon recogntion scheme. Mehran is a Beacon champion and volunteer, mentoring applicants and helping as an assessor. Here we focus on Mehran’s work as an assessor.

Why are you a Beacon assessor?

I enjoyed my time as a PGCert student and later as a Beacon applicant. This is an opportunity to give back, to hope for a positive impact on our teaching and learning community.

What do you find useful/interesting/beneficial in doing this work?

Learning about new teaching practices. I also get motivated by readying successful and impactful teaching practices.

How do you balance this work alongside your main role responsibilities?

By only accepting the number of applications for which I would have time.

If you are also a mentor, how do these roles help you promote Beacon in your context and wider team?

Mentorship for me is even more important and enjoyable than the assessing part as it is an opportunity to meet and know new people and to learn from them while promoting Beacon as a way of reflecting on our teaching journeys.

What was a ‘warm-glow’ moment for you?

Hearing from my colleagues that they also enjoyed the process.

How have Beacon applications changed over the years? Think especially since the first time you assessed, or perhaps compare UKPSF 2011 to PSF 2023…

My feeling is that it has evolved to a less academic, i.e., with less emphasis on the literature, to being practical while it has also become easier to navigate for academics from other disciplines rather than education.

Tell us one thing you learned the last time you assessed a Beacon application

How a lab technician teaches autopsy in medical school 😊but seriously how to make an extreme teaching environment inclusive.

A final thought

I cannot think of anything rather than your hard work to brings academics together and to have Beacon running. Thank you very much for all your hard work.