Dr Kalpana Surendranath and Stephen Bunbury have been awarded National Teaching Fellowships by Advance HE for their contributions to teaching excellence. The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) celebrates individuals who have made an outstanding impact to student outcomes and the teaching profession in UK higher education.
Advance HE has announced the 2025 winners of higher education’s most prestigious UK teaching excellence awards, recognising Westminster’s Dr Surendranath and Bunbury among 61 new National Teaching Fellows.
Dr Kalpana Surendranath is a Reader in Genome Engineering at Westminster who leads the University’s Genome Engineering Laboratory and Gene Editors of the Future programme. Dr Surendranath launched the innovative programme in 2021 to give students from the School of Life Sciences a chance to work with Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR technology and gain lifelong learning skills through scholarly innovation and hands-on experience.
Gene Editors of the Future is now the world’s longest and largest extracurricular activity that focuses on CRISPR technology and has become a vibrant student community at Westminster, collaborating with over 700 students since its initiation. Students on the programme have learnt invaluable skills through hands-on laboratory research and community engagement work, and have also partnered with Queen Mary University to host a first-of-its-kind research forum.
About the fellowship Dr Surendranath said: “Winning the National Teaching Fellowship is profoundly heartwarming and represents a proud milestone in my career in Higher Education (HE). I dedicate this esteemed national honour to my late parents, whose sacrifices and steadfast support enabled me to pursue HE at a time when it was often regarded as a burden for girls. I am sincerely grateful to the University of Westminster, its visionary leadership, my supportive and inspiring colleagues and student superstars, each of whom has shaped my journey in HE in the United Kingdom since 2015. We are Westminster!”
Stephen Bunbury is a Reader in Law at Westminster Law School, Co-Chair of the University’s Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Colleague Network and Programme Lead for the Black History Year Create Programme, an intensive career programme designed to support and empower Black students in navigating structural barriers and shaping their futures. He is also the University’s Institutional Academic Integrity Lead and has contributed to many open access academic integrity teaching resources.
Bunbury works collaboratively with students to ensure curriculum design is inclusive through student-colleague partnerships. He co-leads the Guided Project module on the Law LLB Honours programme, which encourages students to use their skills to research and express their own perspectives on an area of Law that is important to them.
About the fellowship Bunbury commented: “I am honoured to win the National Teaching Fellowship award. Recognition of teaching is important for the sector, and I am grateful that I have ample opportunities to demonstrate and develop inclusive teaching practices at the University of Westminster.”
Dr Surendranath and Stephen Bunbury’s work contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4: Quality Education and 10: Reduced Inequalities. Since 2019, the University of Westminster has used the SDGs holistically to frame strategic decisions to help students and colleagues fulfil their potential and contribute to a more sustainable, equitable and healthier society.
Find out more about teaching and learning at the University of Westminster.
