Typical Profile of a 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.
Principal Fellowship Criteria
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
A good place to get started is by completing the AdvanceHE Fellowship Category Tool. Through a series of questions the tool will help you identify which Fellowship category is the best fit for your role, responsibilities and experience. If your answers align to the profile of PFHEA this should show in the recommendation the tool produces for you.