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DISCUSSIONS IN EDUCATION SERIESIntroductionDavid Sadler, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Students and Education),University of TasmaniaI write as a National Teaching Fellow (NTF) as well assomeone who, in a former capacity as a Director ofthe Higher Education Academy (HEA), had oversightof the scheme and was previously involved in theconsultations to reduce the award from £50,000 to£10,000, and develop a project strand for institutionalbids. As I left the HEA, the NTF scheme wasreverting back to just the individual strand andadditionally engaging academics in Wales, who will bejoining those in England and Northern Ireland.My Introduction will track some of these changes byfocusing on the value of the NTF scheme at sectoral,institutional and individual levels. I start at theindividual level for like all fellows, I have my own‘story’ and my own ‘journey’. The four stories fromeducation below share the traits that can be said totypify the experience of being a NTF. The passionwhich infuses these stories is palpable and is clearlylinked to the process of articulation and rearticulationof teaching philosophies that Walker-Gleaves identifies. This is one of the most positiveand enduring aspects of the rigorous nomination andapplication process. This was the first step in my ownpersonal transformation and was a genuine epiphany,in the sense of suddenly finding a confidence and avoice for my own approach to teaching.For many NTFs, the sense of being in ChapmanHoult’s words, a ‘free radical’, in the midst of oftenunsettling change in higher education, is anotherrecognisable element. Hewitt’s writing picks up onthis thread too. I will comment below on the sectoralimpact of NTFs, as distinct from the NTF scheme, butI contend they have greater potential as a collectiveforce of policy critique than has been hithertorealised. The collective combination of passion,expertise and experience in the NTF communitycould be a greater force for change than currently,where the navigation of the waters of change is oftena highly individualised experience. But this is to jumpahead of myself. Turning back to the individual level,Tony Brown laments in his foreword the drop infunding in 2006 as limiting the opportunities forinternational networking and travel. I do not dissentfrom this and as a recipient of the larger sum I haveused the money to broaden my perspectives beyondthe UK shores and outside the boundaries of my own6