The teaching excellence movement is accelerating at colleges and universities around the country as exemplified by the 2024 “Movement Makers” announced today by the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE). Three higher education institutions with leaders who are tireless advocates for teaching excellence will be honored at the second annual National Higher Education Teaching Conference (NHETC). The conference, June 13-14, 2024, at the Hilton Minneapolis, will focus on helping higher education leaders navigate change to advance great teaching at their institutions. The 2024 “Movement Makers” are the University of Texas System, the Ohio Association of Community Colleges, and Palm Beach State College.

“Student success happens in-class, through great teaching and learning. NHETC ’24 is for policymakers, researchers, administrators, faculty, and staff, addressing the policies and practices necessary for great teaching in every class, nation-wide,” said Jonathan Gyurko, Ph.D., ACUE President and Co-founder. “We look forward to celebrating this year’s ‘Movement Makers’ at our gala awards dinner. The tensions dividing many campuses today drive home the importance of great teaching that facilitates tolerance, mutual understanding, and common purpose.”

A leader in the teaching excellence movement, the University of Texas (UT System) is one of the largest public university systems in the nation and the world.

“The UT System is honored to be a recipient of the 2024 ‘Movement Maker’ Award. The award is a tribute to the almost 1,700 extraordinary faculty and faculty leaders across the University of Texas System who have committed their most valuable resource—time—to focus on ways to improve their teaching and the learning of their students through ACUE’s courses in effective teaching practices,” said Rebecca Karoff, Ph.D., Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, the UT System. “The word I hear from numerous instructors who have completed ACUE courses is that the experience ‘transformed’ their approaches to teaching, deepened their students’ learning, and helped them create classroom environments in which all students could be successful.”

The 2024 ACUE “Movement Makers” are honored for their advocacy for teaching excellence as described here:

• Ohio Association of Community Colleges (OACC): The Ohio Association of Community Colleges (OACC) has made a significant investment in teaching excellence through its three-year partnership with ACUE to achieve its ambitious goal of certifying faculty from all 23 state community colleges. To date, more than 500 faculty have earned ACUE certification with the 2023-2024 cohort slated to complete their certification this spring. The OACC offers community college faculty across the state access to all ACUE's new courses and was also an early adopter of the new AI Quick Study Courses. This momentous effort is the result of strong support from leadership at the OACC and the Ohio Department of Higher Education. The state’s Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Tom Sudkamp partnered with ACUE in 2020 for Strong Start to Finish funded programs and attended the inaugural NHETC in 2023. National advocate for teaching excellence the OACC’s Executive Director, Success Center, Laura Rittner and her colleagues from Ohio community colleges have presented on ACUE’s behalf in multiple webinars and at national higher education conferences.
• Palm Beach State College: Founded in 1933 as Florida’s first public community college, Palm Beach State College (PBSC) has grown from serving 41 local students to more than 36,000 from more than 150 countries across five campuses as well as online. For the past two years, PBSC has made a significant investment in teaching excellence by offering faculty the opportunity to pursue a Certificate in Effective Teaching Practice from ACUE. To date, 361 faculty have participated in the certification program and 226 have earned certification. This momentum can be attributed to PBSC’s leadership’s strong advocacy for ACUE certification both on its campuses and nationwide at higher education conferences. In fact, the community college system is creating an “ACUE with Distinction” category for faculty to grow its culture of teaching excellence.
• The University of Texas System: The University of Texas System (UT System) boasts an enrollment of more than 256,000 students at academic and health institutions across the state. The UT System’s leadership has demonstrated a deep commitment to creating a culture of great teaching across its network. Beginning with a partnership with ACUE in 2018, and with funding from the System, today all nine academic and three of the health institutions in the UT System offer ACUE certification through institutional Centers for Teaching and Learning. 

ACUE is encouraging higher ed leaders to attend NHETC ’24 in teams to support the growth of the great teaching movement on their campuses. Programming is designed for senior leaders, CTL directors, and prominent faculty who collectively champion the importance of great teaching and are tasked to lead transformative change at their institutions. They will leave NHETC ’24 with proven ideas, relevant examples, and the inspiration needed to take this work forward as part of the nation’s “great teaching” movement. Limited registration is still available. For more information or to register, visit https://nhetc.acue.org/.

NHETC ‘24’s co-hosts and supporters include the Council of Independent Colleges, the National Association of System Heads (NASH), the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Mursion, Kaplans, Ascendium Education Group, Lumina, and the Raikes foundations.

Media registration for NHETC is available by contacting Lisa Wolfe at [email protected].