Graduate Faculty Teaching Awards

The Temerty Faculty of Medicine will annually award up to 6 Graduate Faculty Teaching Awards (GFTA). The purpose is to honour and celebrate outstanding contributions to graduate education by faculty in Temerty Medicine who teach in doctoral stream or professional graduate programs.

The nominee must be:

• Nominated by a Graduate Unit (where primary graduate {SGS} membership is held) through a student (or recent graduate)-initiated process.
• Holding a full time primary academic appointment in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.
• A faculty holding either an Associate or Full graduate faculty membership in the School of Graduate Studies.
• Teaching in either the doctoral (thesis MSc or PhD) or professional graduate programs.

Also:

• A previous winner may be nominated for a Graduate Faculty Teaching Award in a different category at any time but not for the same award category already awarded.

Each Graduate Unit may only submit ONE faculty member per award category:    

1.  Early Career Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentorship

This award recognizes outstanding contribution to the training and experience of graduate students, as evidenced by excellence in teaching, supervision and mentorship and dedication to students. This award is restricted to Faculty in the early stages of their career within 8 years of their initial SGS membership (including graduate memberships elsewhere) as of December of application year. 

2. Mid-Career Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentorship

This award recognizes sustained (between 8 to 15 years of all graduate memberships as of December of application year) contribution to graduate student mentorship, teaching and supervision exemplified by but not limited to:

• major contribution to graduate student learning
• enthusiastic and empathic critical appraisal of students’ work
• timely assessment of students' research programs including program advisory committee meetings and prompt turnaround of written work
• careful attention to a critical path laid out for students' research

Objective evidence of graduate student outcomes, including number of:

• students with publications
• students with first authorship
• students holding major, competitive external awards
• students with timely completion of degree

Mentorship and teaching life skills and advising on career matters including:

• academic/career options
• CV preparation

3. Sustained Excellence in Graduate Teaching and Mentorship

This award recognizes sustained contributions (at least fifteen years of all graduate memberships as of December of application year) to any aspect of graduate teaching including:

• graduate student supervision and mentoring
• curriculum development
• regular support of Graduate Departmental, Faculty and University graduate activities
• graduate program administration (as applicable)

The committee will consider each nominee’s applicability with the award category’s criteria and the following; however, it is not expected that all of these points below will apply to all nominees:

1) Commitment:

• quantity of teaching (number of courses and hours)
• accessibility to students
• research and publications on teaching methods

2) Excellence in communication skills

3) Subject mastery

4) Ability to organize material and emphasize principles

5) Demonstrated ability to stimulate students:

• encourages interest in and enthusiasm for subject
• displays good rapport with students
• leads and challenges students to think critically, analytically and independently, and to organize their own learning

6) Effective use of appropriate teaching resources and instructional methodologies

7) Innovative, creative and experimental teaching methods

8) Evidence of mentorship (e.g., Identified in supporting letters from those mentored)

9) The COVID-19 Pandemic continues to present significant challenges to the way we teach and how our graduate students learn and are supervised.  Mentoring in the time of COVID-19 is particularly important as our research activities and the career paths of our graduate students and post-doctoral fellows continue to be impacted.  Continuing from last year, special attention will be made to faculty members who have made extraordinary efforts in pivoting to remote or new ways of learning. 

Graduate Units will have an earlier internal deadline for their graduate students to ensure:

• Nomination(s) are submitted to GLSE by December 2, 2024.
• Each Graduate Unit only submit ONE faculty member per award category.

Note:

• Nomination items must be sent in Adobe (.pdf) format by e-mail to rhse.awards@utoronto.ca
• If the nomination is submitted as one combined PDF document, it must be arranged in the order listed below.
• Letters of support should be addressed to Dr. Justin Nodwell, Vice Dean, Research & Health Science Education, Temerty Medicine, University of Toronto.
• The GFTA nomination should be submitted through the Graduate unit where the nominee’s primary graduate (SGS) membership is held. If an unit wishes to endorse a nomination for a faculty member with a primary SGS membership held elsewhere, the unit will need to coordinate this with the primary graduate unit.
• Preference is for the Graduate Unit to complete and submit the application(s) after the student requests the nomination. However, the student may help complete and submit the GFTA application to GLSE as long as the Graduate Unit is aware of the submission and ensures only one faculty member per award category is submitted from their Unit. Also, it is suggested that the Graduate Unit assist the student(s) with the application, if it is submitted by the student. 

The required documents:

• Nomination Form.
• Letter of support from the Chair/Director of the nominee’s Graduate Unit.
• Letters of nomination from 2 students or recent graduates supporting faculty member for category being nominated in.  Maximum of 2 pages per letter.
• Abridged CV (max 10 pages) which includes a full description of the contribution to graduate teaching and accomplishments relevant to the award eligibility criteria, including:
  • a list of graduate students supervised (dates, thesis title, and student’s awards, and follow-up post graduation (if available)
  • a list of publications with the graduate student’s name underlined or bolded
  • quantity of teaching courses
  • relevant graduate teaching
  • course evaluations, if available
  • relevant teaching awards
• A short biosketch of candidate (max 150 words – suitable for public release). Additional short paragraph of “Reflections” may be included with the biosketch.

OPTIONAL: 

• Additional letters of support (faculty/students). Maximum of 3 optional letters of support and maximum of 1 page per letter.

1. Who should complete and submit the GFTA nomination to GLSE? 

Answer: Preference is for the Graduate Unit to complete and submit the application(s) after the student requests the nomination. However, the student may help complete and submit the GFTA application to GLSE as long as the Graduate Unit is aware of the submission and ensures only one faculty member per award category is submitted from their Unit. Also, it is suggested that the Graduate Unit assist the student(s) with the application, if it is submitted by the student. 

The GFTA nomination should be submitted through the Graduate unit where the nominee’s primary graduate (SGS) membership is held. If an unit wishes to endorse a nomination for a faculty member with a primary SGS membership held elsewhere, the unit will need to coordinate this with the primary graduate unit.

2. How do I find out what the primary graduate unit the candidate is in?

Answer: Please review the SGS listings of graduate faculty members.

3. What is a “recently graduated student nominator”?

Answer: Preference is for a recently graduated student (within the last 5 years) who completed a doctoral-stream or professional master’s program and was supervised or mentored by the faculty nominee.

4. What are Biosketch and Reflections summaries?

Answer: A GFTA biosketch is a short and specific paragraph about the nominee’s qualifications and achievements in graduate education.  A GFTA reflections summary is a personal statement about graduate teaching and mentorship. Please review these examples.

5. Who are the previous GFTA winners?

Answer: Previous winners are listed on our website.