D4 - Principal Fellow

Principal Fellowship recognises highly experienced colleagues whose work demonstrates sustained, effective strategic leadership of learning and teaching, with extensive impact within or beyond an institution, or across a discipline or profession.

Descriptor 4 is not role-dependent. It is relevant to colleagues whose influence operates at a strategic level, shaping direction, culture, policy, and practice in higher education. What matters is not job title, but the scale, reach, and durability of your impact on high-quality learning.

Please note that we cannot review Principal Fellowship schemes as part of the APEX programme but we will be offering support and mentoring to allow colleagues to make a direct claim to AdvanceHE.

There is no single profile, but colleagues claiming at D4 often include:

• Senior academic leaders with institutional or faculty-wide responsibility for learning and teaching

• Professional services leaders shaping strategy, policy, or infrastructure that enables learning

• Academic developers, learning designers, or digital education leaders with pan-institutional or sector impact

• Individuals leading national or international initiatives, frameworks, or communities of practice

• Consultants or advisors whose work has influenced higher education strategy, policy, or enhancement activity

What unites these profiles is strategic leadership, not operational delivery.

The APEX Principal Fellowship pathway is suitable for colleagues who can evidence:

• Sustained strategic leadership over a period of typically five to seven years

• Leadership that has transformed practice and outcomes, not just supported or improved them

• Impact that extends beyond individual programmes or teams, influencing systems, frameworks, or communities of practice

• You may be working within a university, across faculties or services, in professional bodies, national or international networks, or as an external consultant influencing higher education practice.

By applying to become a Principal Fellow you should be able to provide evidence of: 

D4.1

Sustained and effective strategic leadership of higher education practice, with extensive impact on high-quality learning: within or beyond an institution, or across a discipline or profession

D4.2

Development and implementation of effective and inclusive strategies, policies, procedures, or initiatives to enhance practice and outcomes for learners

D4.3

Active commitment to, and integration of, all Dimensions of the Professional Standards Framework in the strategic leadership of academic or professional practices