What are the benefits of winning an ASPIRE award?
Winning an ASPIRE to Excellence award comes with a number of reputational benefits, highlighting your institution nationally and internationally as a global leader in the areas awarded. Winning institutions can also clearly demonstrate to their students, staff and other stakeholders that the quest for excellence in education is part of their school’s vision and mission, and can also highlight that the educational experience at the school, in the awarded areas, is amongst the best available in the world.
Your institution also becomes part of an exclusive network of ASPIRE winning schools recognized for their excellence in education.
How to apply
The application period has now closed.
Submitted applications will be reviewed by a team of three assessors who submit their report to be considered by the relevant ASPIRE panel. Recommendations from the panel are then endorsed by the ASPIRE Board.
The standard charge per submission is £2,500 for each Area of Excellence to be assessed, this is reduced to £2,000 per submission for two or more submissions in the same twelve month period. The charge for institutions from emerging economies is £1,500 per submission, and £1,250 for two or more submissions in the same calendar year.
View the list of emerging economies to see if your institution is eligible for this. Payment must be received before submissions are sent out for review, and re-submissions will be accepted within three years of the original application. The charge for a resubmission is £2,000.
The Areas of Excellence
Schools can opt to submit applications for ASPIRE to excellence awards in any of the following areas:
Assessment of Students
Curriculum Development
Faculty Development
Inspirational Approaches to Health Professions Education
Simulation
Social Accountability of the School
Student Engagement in the Curriculum and in the School
Technology Enhanced Learning
International Collaboration in Health Professions Education
For an institution to be regarded as achieving excellence in the area of assessment, there should be evidence of an outstanding programme of assessment. This can be demonstrated to actively promote learning in order to achieve the curriculum objectives, provide a fair assessment of learner achievement, and ensure patient safety by only allowing competent individuals to progress and graduate. The notion of excellence also embodies the active engagement with scholarship and a desire to seek continuous improvement in the area of assessment of competence.
The
Excellence in Assessment Panel comprises the following individuals:
Richard Fuller (Chair), UK
Chris Roberts, Australia
Christy Boscardin, USA
Debra Klamen, USA
Dianne Manning, South Africa
Dujeepa Samarasekera, Singapore
John Cookson, UK
Kathy Boursicot, Singapore
Katy Cobb, UK
Kevin Eva, Canada
Maria Rachid, Lebanon
Michael Tweed, New Zealand
Paul Gordon-Ross, USA
Rukhsana Zuberi, Pakistan
Valdes Bollela, Brazil
The application period has now closed.
Download the application criteria
A curriculum is a statement of the intended aims and objectives, experiences, outcomes and processes of an educational programme (Grant, 2006). A curriculum describes all the ways in which a training or teaching organisation plans and guides learning. This learning can take place in groups or with individual learners. It can take place inside or outside a classroom. It can take place in an institutional setting like a school, college or training centre, or in a village or a field. It is central to the teaching and learning process (Rogers and Taylor, 1998).
The
Excellence in Curriculum Development Panel comprises the following individuals:
John Jenkins (Chair), Ireland
Sharon Peters (Vice-Chair), Canada
Anne-Marie Reid, UK
Berkay Akad Ülker (Student Representative), Turkey
Gustavo Quintero, Argentina
Indika Karunathilake, Sri Lanka
Janusz Janczukowicz, Poland
Liz Mossop, UK
Ming-Jung Ho, USA
Peter McCrorie, Cyprus
Richard Hays, Australia
Toh Chooi Gait, Malaysia
The application period has now closed.
Download the application criteria
An applicant school may have a single centralised program or a decentralised series of programs of faculty development to enhance teaching/education, leadership and scholarship. Applicants will describe the total array of the school’s faculty development programs in the application summary and will specify whether the application will describe the whole series of programs OR focus on the specific program that prepares teachers and educators, educational leaders and educational scholars. The program must include a focus on those who teach undergraduate students but may also include those who teach postgraduates and practicing clinicians. The school’s designated program(s) will constitute “the program of faculty development” for the ASPIRE program application and be assessed using the criteria for excellence.
The
Excellence in Faculty Development Panel comprises the following individuals:
Ardi Findyartini (Chair), Indonesia
Francois Cilliers, South Africa
Herma Roebertsen, The Netherlands
Latika Nirula, Canada
Madalina Elena Mandache, Romania
Peter Cantillon, Ireland
Ugo Caramori, Brazil
Wendy Hu, Australia
The application period has now closed.
Download the application criteria
In line with ASPIRE’s aim of recognising excellence in health professions education and veterinary science, the need had been identified to recognise schools where there is evidence of excellence in education not addressed or captured in other ASPIRE categories specified to date or where resources are limited to satisfy all the criteria within a particular area due to certain economic or cultural limitations– which the school or institution has overcome to demonstrate impact and excellence. This new initiative will contribute to the ASPIRE aim of supporting international excellence in health professions in whatever form or context it manifests. We also hope it will encourage schools, colleges or institutions to apply for recognition for their initiatives and efforts. This category recognises that excellence exists in a range of ways in various contexts. This should encourage schools, colleges and institutions and indeed the health care professions education community more widely to think in different ways of how excellence in education can manifest.
If you are interested in submitting an application for this category,
please send a letter of intent to
[email protected] initially, and the team will be back in touch with you with more information on making your full submission.
The
Excellence in Inspirational Approaches Panel comprises the following individuals:
Elizabeth Kachur (Chair), USA
Alexandra Dumitra, Romania
Annette Burgess, Australia
Barry Issenberg, USA
Vagelis Papageorgiou, UK
Harm Peters, Germany
Irem Aktar, Turkey
Vishna Devi Nadarajah, UK
The application period has now closed.
Download the Letter Of Intent template
Download the application criteria
Simulation in healthcare education is a “technique, not a technology that replaces or amplifies real experiences with guided experiences that evoke or replicate substantial aspects of the real world in a fully interactive manner” (Gaba, 2004). Simulation may include a range of technologies and educational contexts that include but are not limited to: simulated (standardised patients), simple and partial task trainers, full body patient mannequins, virtual reality, augmented reality, haptic, hybrid models, and simulated environments. An institution that has achieved excellence in healthcare simulation education ensures it is well-designed (embedded in appropriate educational theory), and integrated into the curriculum, uses it as an adjunct to patient or health systems care training and/or assessment experiences, and provides for outcome driven measures that are continuously evaluated for quality and improvement.
The
Excellence in Simulation Panel comprises the following individuals:
Debra Nestel (Chair), Australia
Augusto Scalabrini Neto, Brazil
Barry Issenberg, USA
Diane B. Wayne, USA
Ignacio de Moral, Spain
Jean Ker, UK
Luke Devine, Canada
Paul Phrampus, USA
Ross Scalese, USA
The application period has now closed.
Download the application criteria
The essence of the social accountability of a school is their engaging, partnering with, and responding to the needs of their communities, regions and nation (noting that some social accountability activities may involve all three levels whereas others may predominately involve the community, or region, or nation).
The
Excellence in Social Accountability Panel comprises the following individuals:
Bob Woollard (Chair), Canada
Alex Anawati, Canada
Bipin Batra, India
Charles Boelen, France
Debra Klamen, USA
Emmanuelle Careau, Canada
Erin Walling, Canada
James Rourke, Canada
Kosha Gala (IFMSA representative), Denmark
Madalena Patricio, Portugal
Martin Veysey, UK
Nivritti Patil, Hong Kong
Robert Carroll, USA
Rui Amaral Mendes, Portugal
Shelley Fielden, UK
Tomas Petras (IFMSA representative), Slovakia
Tomlin Paul, Rwanda
The application period has now closed.
Download the application criteria
For a school/institution to be regarded as achieving excellence in student engagement, there must be specific evidence provided in the application that students actively participate in a variety of areas within and external to the academic community and that they are consulted about and formally participate in shaping the teaching and learning experience.
The
Excellence in Student Engagement Panel comprises the following individuals:
Barbara Barzansky (Co-Chair), USA
Carmen Fuentealba (Co-Chair), USA
Celine Marmion, Ireland
Danai Wangsaturaka, Thailand
Gladys Zugwai Ibrahim (Student Member), Nigeria
Khalid Bin Abdulrahman, Saudi Arabia
Kulsoom Ghias, Pakistan
Madalena Patricio, Portugal
Maria Rosa Fenoll-Brunet, Spain
Marietjie Van Rooyen, South Africa
Marko Zdravkovic, Slovenia
The application period has now closed.
Download the application criteria
There is no ‘universal’ definition of Technology Enhanced Learning (Kirkwood & Price, 2014) but a useful broad definition is that used by the AMEE Technology Enhanced Learning Committee: “enhancing teaching and learning by the use of general education technologies with special emphasis on the education pedagogies underlying their use.” Technology is increasingly used in both simulation and in the provision of healthcare (medical informatics) but applicants are advised to carefully consider the appropriateness of activities in their application for ASPIRE Recognition of Excellence in Technology Enhanced Learning.
The Excellence in Technology Enhanced Learning Panel comprises the following individuals:
John Sandars (Chair), UK
Dario Fernandes, Brasil
Goh Poh Sun, Singapore
Kalyani Premakumar, Canada
Ken Masters, Oman
Monika Sobocan, Slovenia
Peter de Jong, Netherlands
Raquel Correira, France
Shoaleh Bigdeli, Iran
The application period has now closed.
Download the application criteria
For the purposes of the ASPIRE award in International Collaboration, we intend to define collaboration as the purposeful action of working with others for mutual benefit that extends beyond the organisations themselves and involves a sharing of responsibilities and power. Collaborations should be able to demonstrate the additional benefits and value that the collaboration brings, over and above what each entity can achieve alone.
The
Excellence in International Collaborations in Health Professions Education Panel comprises the following individuals:
Chinthaka Balasooriya (Chair), Australia
Alaa Dafallah, Sudan
Azhar Adam Nadkar, South Africa
David Taylor, UAE
Emmaline Brouwer, The Netherlands
Judy McKimm, UK
Lionel Green-Thompson, South Africa
Mohammed Hassan Taha, UAE
Molly Fyfe, USA
Pat O-Sullivan, USA
Russell D'Souza, Australia
Samar Absoulsoud, Egypt
The application period has now closed.
Download the application criteria
The criteria for excellence in each area is set and assessed by international leaders and experts in each field, as well as practicing teachers and students. If you have any questions about any aspect of ASPIRE to Excellence, please contact us at
[email protected]
The ASPIRE Foundation Board
The
ASPIRE Foundation Board comprises the following individuals:
James Rourke (Chair), Canada
Ahmed Al Kuwaiti, Saudi Arabia
Anne Lloyd, UK
Ardi Findyartini, Indonesia
Azhar Adam Nadkar, South Africa
Barbara Barzansky, USA
Carmen Fuentealba, USA
Chinthaka Balasooriya, Australia
Deborah O'Mara, Australia
Debra Klamen, USA
Debra Nestel, Australia
Dujeepa Samarasekera, Singapore
Elizabeth Kachur, USA
Francois Cilliers, South Africa
Harm Peters, Germany
Ilze Akota, Latvia
John Jenkins, Ireland
John Sandars, UK
John Tegzes, USA
Kathleen Leedham-Green, UK
Kulsoom Ghias, Pakistan
Madalena Patricio, Portugal
Marko Zdravkovic, Slovenia
Ricardo Leon Borquez, Mexico
Richard Fuller, UK
Robert Woollard, Canada
Ronald Harden, UK
Rukhsana Zuberi, Pakistan
Vishna Devi Nadarajah, Malaysia
The ASPIRE Executive Committee
The ASPIRE Executive Committee comprises the following individuals:
James Rourke (Chair), Canada
Anne Lloyd (AMEE), UK
Ilze Akota (representing the ASPIRE Board members), Latvia
Kulsoom Ghias (representing the ASPIRE Academy), Pakistan
Richard Fuller (representing the Panel Chairs), UK