The report Advancing the reward of university teaching: insights from three waves of the Teaching Cultures Survey has now been published.
The report offers a global picture of how university teaching is valued and rewarded at institutions working to strengthen recognition of university teaching in academic career progression. Drawing on findings from 2019, 2022 and 2025, the analysis captures academics’ views on how university teaching is valued and rewarded, and examines how perceptions have shifted as reforms to career pathways and promotion processes have been introduced.
In 2025, 17 research-intensive universities across nine countries took part, with 12,071 academics participating. Institutions included King’s College London, Utrecht University, the University of British Columbia and the University of New South Wales.
The full report is available at the survey Findings page: https://www.teachingcultures.com/Findings/.
The 2025 Advancing Teaching meeting took place in Copenhagen on 1st and 2nd October, hosted by Aalborg University. More than 50 university leaders and experts from 36 universities across 17 countries came together to share experiences and explore ways to strengthen the reward of university teaching in academic careers.
Discussions focused on a range of topics, including advancing culture change within universities and rewarding collegiality in teaching and learning. The meeting also included a presentation of provisional findings from the 2025 Teaching Cultures Survey, which is capturing and tracking the perspectives of academics at universities working to improve how university teaching is rewarded. The final report will be released in January 2026.
The contributions and insights shared by participants made for an inspiring and forward-looking discussion – thank you to everyone who took part.
Further information on the meeting is available here.
Over the coming four months, 17 universities from across the world (listed here) will take part in the 2025 Teaching Cultures Survey (TCS). The TCS is a global collaboration between research-intensive universities that are actively engaged in improving the reward of university teaching in academic careers. The short survey captures the experiences and perspectives of the university’s academic community, offering insight into how institutional policies and activities designed to improve the reward of university teaching are embedded and experienced in practice. The TCS also enables universities to benchmark their findings and progress against peer research-intensive institutions worldwide.
The TCS forms one element of a wider project – the Advancing Teaching initiative – focused on improving the reward and recognition of university teaching. Further information on the survey is available here: https://teachingcultures.com
The Global Mapping report has just been released, offering insights into the evolving landscape of how university teaching is supported, evaluated and rewarded in academic careers. Drawing on interviews with over 130 leaders and change-makers from 26 countries, the report highlights how institutions are reshaping reward systems worldwide. The report is structured in two sections: Section A maps the global movement for change and identifies universities recognised as 'front-runners' in the field; Section B examines how these institutions are addressing key barriers to change. The study was co-funded by a consortium of universities, including Aalborg University (Denmark), King's College London (UK), KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), LSE (UK), NTNU (Norway), Utrecht University (Netherlands), and PUC (Chile).
Read the report here: https://www.advancingteaching.com/mapping/
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the 2024 Advancing Teaching meeting, held at King's College London on 24th and 25th October 2024. This was a wonderful event that brought together 55 participants from 14 countries with a shared mission to improve the reward of university teaching in academic careers. Further information on the meeting is given here.