Bayes Associate Professor awarded prestigious Principal Fellowship

Dr Martin Rich, Associate Professor of Information Technology at Bayes Business School has been awarded a Principal Fellowship by Advance HE.

Dr Rich, who served as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programmes at Bayes between 2021 and 2024, becomes one of just 2,000 Principal Fellows across the UK’s Higher Education sector.

Advance HE aims to help higher education staff and students across the world, through enhancing confidence and trust and addressing inequalities to support members. Its principal fellowships recognise effective leadership in the sector and the impact individuals have on learning across disciplines and professions. Fellows must demonstrate development and implementation of inclusive teaching strategies alongside policies and procedures for learning outcomes, both inside and outside of their own university.

Dr Rich was recognised for his contribution the Bayes’ undergraduate programme, for which he served as Associate Dean between 2021 and 2024. During the pandemic, he leveraged his experience in incorporating technology into higher education by implementing measures to set up online teaching quickly and effectively.

Throughout this time of change, coupled with the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI), Dr Rich was able to successfully drive expansion of the undergraduate programme. This included introducing the Teaching and Learning Exchange series, a forum for discussion and ideas around building an environment where educational innovation is encouraged and valued.

Dr Rich said the accolade would aid further development of the Bayes undergraduate experience for academics and students.

“Higher Education has undergone unprecedented changes in recent years” he said.

“The pandemic forced institutions to adapt rapidly to changing student needs and medical guidance around how teaching could be delivered. Coming out of the pandemic, universities were then tasked with the new challenge of establishing the ‘new normal’: managing a return to traditional practices while leveraging the benefits of temporary measures, such as remote learning and flexible assessments.

“AI has also become a fundamental part of the classroom, not only in terms of the opportunities it presents for enhanced teaching and learning – and challenges of assessment – but of the increasing demand for graduates with skills to unlock the potential of AI tools as they develop and evolve in the future.

“It is a great honour to become a Principal Fellow, and I look forward to working with the Advance HE community to improve teaching, learning and leadership across higher education practices”.

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