Teaching Excellence Awards for Faculty

The Faculty Teaching Excellence Awards  offered by the Office of the Vice-Principal Academic & Dean (OVPAD) recognize excellence in undergraduate teaching at the University of Toronto Mississauga. Teaching encompasses instruction in lectures, seminars, practicals, and tutorials. It includes a wide array of teaching approaches by which student derive educational benefits. 

The teaching excellence awards offered by OVPAD include the following: 

  • E.A. Robinson Teaching Excellence Award for Senior Faculty
  • UTM Teaching Excellence Award for Junior Faculty
  • UTM Cleo Leland Boyd Teaching Excellence Award for Sessional Instructors

Teaching effectiveness is demonstrated by the degree to which the faculty member is:

  • Engaging students in their learning
  • Providing challenging assessments in a safe learning environment
  • Communicating academic material effectively, and
  • Maintaining a proficiency in their subject areas.
  • Making themselves accessible to students
  • influencing the intellectual and scholarly development of students

The name of the junior division award is under discussion, and suggestions for honouring past UTM community members are welcome. Please send suggestions to vdundergraduate.utm@utoronto.ca.

The award recipients will receive $3000 for teaching-related initiatives and research.

UTM Teaching Excellence Award for Junior Faculty 2023-24:
Dr. Lisa Zhang from the Department of Mathematical & Computational 

E.A. Robinson Teaching Excellence Award for Senior Faculty 2023-24:
Dr. Christoph Richter from the Department of Biology 

Click here for a list of past award recipients.

Principal Nominators

The principal nominator may be an individual faculty member or a group composed of multiple University of Toronto Mississauga community members, including students. Groups submitting a nomination must include at least one faculty. The chair or director of the nominee’s unit must support the nomination and should be consulted throughout the nomination process. Nominators are encouraged to read the following guidelines carefully prior to submitting a nomination.

Deadline for Submission of the Nomination Package

Nomination packages are due Monday, June 30, 2025. The nomination package must be complete and in PDF format. The PDF should be saved in the name of the nominee. That PDF can then be uploaded to the File Request at the link below, and using that system, sent to Anna Reale (anna.reale@utoronto.ca).

Click here to upload the nomination package.

Nominee Eligibility

The awards are open to individuals whose major appointment is at the University of Toronto Mississauga and who hold the academic rank of professor, associate professor, or assistant professor, in either the tenure or teaching stream, as well as to individuals who have served as a sessional lecturer or course instructor for two or more terms at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

Individuals may be nominated for the award any number of times, but may receive each award only once. Receipt of more than one category of award (e.g., both junior and senior) requires the second nomination to focus almost entirely on achievements after the period of the first award.

Nominees to the Teaching Excellence Awards will be considered as follows:

  • E.A. Robinson Teaching Excellence Award for Senior Faculty has been established to recognize excellence in teaching from senior associate or full professors (teaching and tenure stream) whose major appointment is to the University of Toronto Mississauga campus. Nominees for the E.A. Robinson award must have taught at UTM for at least five years and should be at least two years post- promotion.
  • UTM Teaching Excellence Award for Junior Faculty has been established to recognize excellence in teaching from assistant professors and early associate professors (teaching and tenure stream) whose major appointment is to the University of Toronto Mississauga campus. Nominees for his division must be pre-promotion or within two years of promotion.
  • UTM Cleo Leland Boyd Teaching Excellence Award for Sessional Instructors has been established to recognize excellence in teaching from course instructors and sessional lectures at any level. Nominees will only be considered for their work as a course instructor on the University of Toronto Mississauga campus. Individuals must have two or more terms (H or Y) of experience working as a course instructor at UTM to be eligible for this award.

Please clearly indicate the award to which you are nominating the individual in your application. Nominators for LTL or CLTA should consult with the Associate Dean, Teaching and Learning for direction on the division most appropriate for the specific case.

Adjudication Criteria

Nominees will be evaluated for the awards by the adjudication committee on the basis of sustained outstanding performance in several of the following areas:

  • Effective, inclusive, and supportive classroom instruction (including lecturing, small group teaching and/or laboratory instruction) that develops student continued and proficient knowledge of a subject and encourages the development of critical skills.
  • Accessibility to students outside of class (including individual tutoring and advising) and active engagement in their learning and growth.
  • Creation of outstanding learning experiences (including assessments, experiential learning, research opportunities, or individual coursework such as projects and undergraduate theses) that facilitate student growth.
  • The creation or improvement of courses, curricula, teaching processes, and educational materials that can be demonstrated to increase the effectiveness of teaching and learning.
  • Contributions to and leadership within the UTM teaching community or, more broadly, the university or disciplinary teaching communities, through educational development, planning and research (including the scholarship of teaching and learning).

Nomination Package Requirements and Format

All nomination packages must be submitted electronically as single PDFs, and may not exceed 50 pages, excluding the CV. No hard copies of any part of the package will be accepted.

The nomination package should clearly and comprehensively address the adjudication criteria. Nominators will need to be selective about the type and amount of evidence they collect to support the nomination in order to meet the 50-page limit. A complete nomination package includes:

  1. A table of contents.
  2. An updated CV (This should be provided by the nominee to the principal nominator to be included in the nomination package).
  3. A detailed nomination letter from the principal nominator (maximum three pages), indicating the award category proposed and clearly explaining the reasons for considering the nominee, specifically addressing the adjudication criteria above. Please include the nominator’s contact information.
  4. If they are not the principal nominator, a brief (maximum 1 page) letter of support from the chair or director of the nominee’s unit.
  5. A dossier outlining the nominee's teaching duties and accomplishments in the areas listed under adjudication criteria and providing evidence of outstanding performance. (This should be provided by the nominee to the principal nominator to be included in the nomination package).The dossier may include:
    1. A teaching philosophy statement
    2. A statement on how the nominee’s current teaching practice demonstrates the adjudication criteria. This statement can include evidence of the current teaching practice and therefore refer to descriptions, reviews, samples of educational materials produced, or accounts of other innovations or contributions to teaching practice. It can also include other relevant information, such as mentorship or training, evidence of ongoing pedagogical development, contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning, or development of programs or initiatives. The specific teaching samples and course syllabi can be provided as an appendix to the nomination package.
    3. A summary of formal teaching evaluations. (Do not include raw data. This can be summarized by the nominee or the principal nominator.)
  6. A list of individuals writing letters of support and the letters of support themselves (maximum 1 page each) that provide direct, personal evidence of the nominee’s impact. In general, strong nominations include support from several constituencies, such as students, teaching assistants, faculty colleagues, and departmental Chairs. There should be at least two to three letters from each of the different constituency.

The adjudication committee will share their decisions by mid-October. Only the principal nominators are notified. Nominees themselves are not directly notified. 

Principal nominators will be provided with the contact information of the chair of the adjudication committee upon request. Requests for feedback should be made directly to the chair. 

Notes on Privacy & Confidentiality

Nomination packages will be disseminated to Adjudication Committee members, and the membership of those Committees will likely not be set until after the nomination deadline.

The successful nominee will be provided with a full copy of the complete nomination package (along with a congratulatory letter).

The Adjudication Committee administration will NOT notify unsuccessful nominees of their nomination, nor will the administration provide them (or anyone other than the Adjudication Committee) with a copy of the unsuccessful dossier.

Please do not include confidential information in the nomination package.

Please contact Anna Reale, anna.reale@utoronto.ca if you have questions about the Teaching Excellence Award competitions.