The Teaching Excellence Award is a way to celebrate and reward exceptional educational scholarship across the U21 HSG network. Each year, two individuals will be announced as the awardees. The Teaching Excellence Award aims to nurture international cooperation — one of U21 HSG’s key objectives — by offering the two faculty from different universities, and ideally different disciplines, an opportunity to work together to jointly deliver a workshop.

Congratulations to our two awardees for 2025!

Introducing …
- Mark Pickering at the School of Medicine, University College Dublin
- Mei Li Khong at the LKS Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong

About Mark: I’m a lecturer, neuroscientist, microscopist, tinkerer and maker, but the thread that connects my teaching, my research and my other professional activities is the use of creativity to enhance curiosity and understanding, particularly with the diverse learners I work with as partners within and outside the traditional, formal academic environment.

About Mei Li: Partnerships with students, spanning disciplines and geographical boundaries, are at the heart of what I do. I am especially passionate about student-educator partnership, where students and faculty collaborate to co-design curriculum and pedagogy. I advocate the tr

What does the Award offer?

Aside from the recognition and the prestige of winning the award, the TEA offers the two awardees travel funding (flight + accommodation) to attend the U21 HSG 2026 Annual Meeting, where they will be required to work together to facilitate an educational workshop. The 2026 Annual Meeting will be hosted from 23 - 26 November by the LKS Faculty of Medicine at The University of Hong Kong.

Who is it aimed at?

To be considered for the award, the individual must hold a current academic appointment in one of the U21 HSG member universities with a significant component of teaching. 2025 TEA nominees / applicants must indicate if they are:

Either an emerging academic (3 to 6 years of relevant teaching experience)
Or an experienced academic (Over 6 years of relevant teaching experience)

How to apply?

Those interested will need to contact the 2025 Teaching Excellence Award representative from their university to understand the process. Each U21 HSG member institution can nominate up to two applicants for the Teaching Excellence Award:

Maximum of 1 emerging academic
Maximum of 1 experienced academic

All final applications should be sent on or before 18 June 2025 to Alicia Lui, U21 HSG Operations Manager, via email at alicia22@hku.hk.

Nomination process

Universities can have their own internal nomination, review process and timelines. If you’re an applicant, it’s best to check with your university representative to find out what the process is.

Selection committee

Final applications (one per university) will be reviewed by a panel of reviewers. They will be looking for evidence of impact of the teaching activities developed by applicants / nominees in the areas of:

International collaboration in teaching and learning or internationalisation of curricula
Contributions to advancing teaching and learning with a particular focus on interdisciplinary teaching and on students’ interdisciplinary learning
Outstanding and sustained record of teaching excellence

Timeline

2025

end Feb: Award is open for applications
18 June: Deadline for universities to submit their nominee / applicant to Alicia Lui via email.
August: Winners designated by selection committee
August: Winners announced