SHU, as a new university, is striving to accomplish two goals simultaneously, to provide high quality education to students to enable them to increase their earning potential, and to allow teachers to develop and enhance their pedagogical capabilities. To this end, SHU has established a Center of Learning & Teaching.

The Center of Learning & Teaching (CLT) ensures that teachers not only keep their acquired knowledge intact and up-to-date with changes and developments in their field, but also enhance their skills to the best of their abilities.

SHU firmly believes that students deserve the best possible knowledge coming from the teaching faculty. It has hired teachers based not only on their advanced degrees, but after identifying potential in them for the enhancement of their teaching skills and for the broadening of their base of knowledge. Our CLT, established based on the working models and best practices of successful Centers of Teaching and Learning all over the world, works to ensure that this happens.

Below are the benefits that we expect to derive from SHU’s CLT:

1. Collaborations with permanent and visiting faculty, departments, and co-curricular units to advance best practices in all aspects of curricula, instruction, and assessment.
2. Sharing knowledge of evidence-based, student-centered, and outcome-guided pedagogy.
3. Helping improve the quality of education; providing expertise and building collective knowledge of teaching and learning; and leveraging resources and opportunities for faculty enrichment.
4. Promoting iterative experimentation and transformation across curricula to enhance student learning and engagement.
5. Supporting various teaching styles that recognize the diversity of learning, responding to the differences in teaching styles, and creating an inclusive learning environment.
6. Building collaborative ventures and initiating thought-provoking dialogue with mutually beneficial partnerships and cross-functional teams.
7. Recognizing and valuing teaching excellence; making high quality pedagogy visible; and rewarding faculty for their contributions to teaching and learning.

One of the functions of the CLT is to receive feedback from the participants to incorporate changes into the curricula and syllabi taught at the University. This feedback helps teachers to hone their skills. To receive accurate constructive feedback, the CLT has developed a questionnaire that participants at each session of the CLT are required to fill out regarding the presentation made by the speaker.

An important aspect in the enhancement of teaching skills is the establishment of contacts with and cooperation with other, more developed Centers of Learning and Teaching. We strongly believe that substantial international engagement is an indispensable part of a first-rate undergraduate and graduate education and that it is also the top contributor in providing diversity and exposure to our students. We anticipate that through the efforts of the CLT, SHU will develop highly successful higher education programs in the next five years, and that these programs will have a global reach, leading to a period of increasing international engagement for SHU.

We have already established contact with the Learning and Teaching Centre (L&TC) of Edge Hill University, Lancashire, England, and expect to work with the center to achieve our goals and realize our ambitions. Using the same approach, we plan to build and develop relationships with other Teaching and Learning Centers to learn best practices from them and to provide our teachers with the opportunity to interact with the international community of academia.