Anil Doshi is UCL’s 1000th Arena Fellow

Dr Anil Doshi, Lecturer in the Strategy and Entrepreneurship Group at the UCL School of Management, is UCL's 1000th Arena fellow, after completing the University's professional development scheme for staff who teach, supervise, assess or support students’ learning.

Anil is one of 48 UCL colleagues, listed below, who gained recognition in October.

UCL Arena is a scheme of awards accredited by Advance HE, giving teaching and support staff nationally recognised fellowships. UCL Arena offers several pathways to professional recognition, catering for staff at different stages in their university teaching career: from postgraduate teaching assistants and lecturers on probation to programme leaders, senior staff with strategic roles, and professional services staff who support teaching.

As a reflection of UCL’s strategic focus on teaching excellence, gaining an HEA fellowship is an explicit criterion in UCL’s Academic Career Framework, which facilitates the recognition and reward of our staff. While more than a thousand UCL colleagues have been awarded HEA fellowships following their participation in the UCL Arena Programme, there are now a total of 1,691 staff at UCL with fellowships, some having gained recognition in previous employment.

UCL Vice-Provost for Education and Student Affairs Professor Anthony Smith said:

“‘This is excellent news, not only for Anil but for the whole UCL community. By having colleagues who have committed to their own development and who have had their professional skills accredited, we can be sure we are giving our students a great education. Congratulations to Anil and to all our staff who have gained fellowship. And thanks to the UCL Arena team, who are pivotal in making this happen.’

Here, Anil shares his experience of gaining Fellowship with UCL Arena.

1. What is your role?

I am a lecturer in the Strategy and Entrepreneurship Group at the UCL School of Management. My research focuses on digitization, platforms, and firm strategy, and I teach various modules on strategy and data analytics.

2. What was your motivation for applying for fellowship?

The combination of the Arena Two training and fellowship application was the ideal setting to formalise my thinking on pedagogy and become a more effective educator.

3. Tell us about your experience of applying for fellowship? 

I signed up for the Arena Two course during my first year at UCL. My time in Arena Two helped form the foundation for designing Business Strategy and Analytics, a module created for the MSc in Business Analytics (Management track). Applying for the fellowship was a natural step after teaching the module for a few years. 

The application process served two purposes for me personally. First, applying for the fellowship was a moment of reflection to appreciate my growth as a teacher, and also, it helped me think through the areas for improvement in teaching and in the module itself.

4. What was the most useful aspect?

The Arena Two facilitators and other participating colleagues were the most influential aspects of the course. The team did an excellent job combining the latest theory in education and pedagogical research with practical suggestions and simulations to impart the principles espoused by Arena.

Also, I had many good conversations with colleagues about teaching. It was very valuable to have the  opportunity to sit in on the class of a colleague from a different department to observe how teaching takes place there, and to have had colleagues sit in on my class and provide useful feedback. This multi-level approach to teaching and pedagogy sparks many lines of thinking on one’s teaching methods.

5. How has UCL Arena helped you to teach differently?

One challenge is how to balance the uncertainty and ambiguity that surrounds approaching strategy and data analytics projects in industry settings with the need to impose structure and definition on the assessment of assignments in the classroom.

Through Arena and associated workshops, I developed an assessment rubric which I believe satisfies both needs. While the structure of the problems in the assignments remains ambiguous, the rubric is clearly delineated around four general principles (novelty, argument, mechanics, and communication), which are specified for each assignment.

6. How are you planning to develop your teaching?

In addition to readings, I am assigning other external resources (e.g. videos, lectures) prior to class, and using class time as a “laboratory” where students practice, interact, and apply concepts. Following up on the class labs, assignments then simulate “real world” applications of classroom themes.

7. Do you have any advice for someone thinking about applying?

At a minimum, you will have the opportunity to reflect on your own teaching practices.

You will also gain new perspectives on your approach to the classroom by virtue of the Arena Two course and facilitators, academic literature on pedagogy, and colleagues.

UCL staff recognised in October 2019

Associate Fellow

Alexandru Chivu
Stefania Fiorentino
Olusegun Folarin
Andrew James
Nayoung Jeong
Ilona Kubajewska
Matt Oliver
Adrian Skilbeck
Jeanne Trill
Sasha Woods
Hannah Matthews

Fellow

Laila Abdullah
Saniath Akbar
Ana Surian Da Silva
Anil Doshi
Liwei Guo
Sarah Jasim
Kaori Kitagawa
Maria Perez Lamigueiro
Jennifer McGowan
Erika Molteni
Christopher O’Meara
Snehal Pinto Pereira
Daniel Schwarz
Melanie Smallman
Rami Sweis
Leonie Tanczer
Rosie Peppin Vaughan
Rowena Viney
Hannah Willcocks
Jiang Wu
Mircea Zloteanu

Senior Fellow

Lawrence Bellamy
Alexandra Bounia
Sophia Diamantopoulou
Mark Freeman 
Ian Giles
Jacqueline Glass
Kirstine Hansen
Cloda Jenkins
Gabriel Moshenska
Amos Paran
Rosalind Potts
Sarah Rowe
Michelle Shipworth
Tom Woodin

Principal Fellow 

Parama Chaudhury
Sue Taylor