Lecturer wins prestigious Times Higher Education award for innovation in teaching

A senior paramedic science lecturer at UWE Bristol has been named the most innovative teacher of the year at the Times Higher Education Awards 2025.

Jon Newton was recognised with the accolade for the major incident clinical care simulations he has run at Glenside campus.

He received the prize at the award ceremony in Edinburgh, ahead of competition from seven other shortlisted entries from universities across the UK and Ireland.

Judges were impressed by his transformative impact on major incident clinical care education at the university, providing hundreds of students with real-world experience in a psychologically safe environment.

Jon introduced a new six-week module – consisting of lectures, discussion-based learning, a table-top exercise and a interprofessional major incident simulation – to bridge student learning with practical experience.

Integrated into the simulation exercise were 19 external partner agencies, a mock major trauma hospital and full deployment of the emergency services. The activity includes police officers collecting witness statements from students about the incident; enabling them to subsequently participate in a public enquiry courtroom simulation, where they are called to 'give evidence'. 

The approach grabbed the attention of the NHS and Bristol Airport, which awarded Jon external funding for further projects. He also won a student experience grant to deliver an exercise working in partnership with Avon Fire & Rescue Service and the Ministry of Defence.

Jon, a lecturer in the School of Health and Social Wellbeing, created a suite of digital artefacts that has provided additional innovative training for students following the simulation.

Professor Sir Steve West, UWE Bristol’s Vice-Chancellor, said he was ‘blown away’ by the simulation and described it as ‘truly transformational’. Students gave positive feedback, saying they ‘loved every second of it’. The initiative has helped drive student recruitment in paramedic science at the university.

Jon said: "It’s fantastic to have this portfolio of work recognised, particularly at this level. Going into the awards, I gave myself only a small chance of winning due to such fierce competition, so it was a complete shock when my name was called out.

"I want to give a huge thank you to all university colleagues who have been instrumental in ensuring this initiative could go ahead – their efforts are massively valued and without them we wouldn’t have achieved such amazing results.

"The documentary film that supported this award submission has now been seen by a large audience and I believe healthcare professionals are really starting to embrace the importance of interprofessional learning, for improving cohesion between services and ensuring colleagues are better prepared."

Chris Havergal, editor of Times Higher Education, said “The winning entries stand as a reminder that university staff continue to excel across teaching, research and professional services, day in, day out.

“This consistently high performance can often go overlooked amid a challenging environment in which institutions’ licence to operate is questioned seemingly daily – making it all the more important to salute such achievements.”