Killam Teaching Prize

UBC Okanagan awards one Killam Teaching Prize per year, consisting of a cash prize of $5,000. A faculty member may only win the award once during the course of their career.

In addition to being recognized at the annual Teaching Awards Ceremony and convocation, the Killam Teaching Prize recipient is also invited to a ceremony and reception with the Killam Trustees, members of the Killam family, and other Killam scholars at UBC.

UBC Okanagan faculty members with a continuing appointment, either tenured or tenure-track, are eligible. To be eligible for nomination, the faculty member must have received prior awards in recognition of teaching excellence and/or innovation.

Department heads, associate deans and deans(or equivalent) are invited to submit nominations. Faculty members may not apply for the award on their own behalf, although they may provide documentation in their own words as to why they feel they are deserving of the award.

Unsuccessful nominations will be carried forward to the following year’s competition (one year only). Nominees will have the opportunity to update their nomination package to reflect their latest teaching endeavours towards meeting the criteria for the award.

The adjudication criteria for the Killam Teaching Prize are based upon a comprehensive, robust view of teaching that includes in‐class instruction but also takes into account those activities that support teaching that occur outside of the classroom.

The Killam Teaching Prize Committee will be chaired by the Provost and Vice-President, Academic, Okanagan or their designate, who will select the members of the committee at their sole discretion. The committee may include past award recipients.

The nomination package must be submitted as one combined PDF document. Please refer to the key dates for the process deadlines.

The nominator must complete and submit the Intent to Nominate Form to the Dean of the nominee’s Faculty by November 8, 2024.

Following confirmation from the Dean’s office, nominators must complete and submit the following supporting documents to the Dean of the nominee’s Faculty by January 10, 2025:

1. Nomination form
2. Letter of nomination from the nominee’s department head or director
3. Selected letters of reference from students and/or colleagues
   • Up to 5 letters of support may be included.
   • At a minimum, one letter must be from a student and one letter must be from a UBC peer.

The nominee will complete and submit the following supporting documents to their Dean by January 10, 2025:

1. The nominee’s CV in UBC format edited to explain teaching excellence (no more than 15 pages)
2. Teaching philosophy (2 pages)
3. Personal statement explaining how the criteria is met with specific examples (3 pages)
4. Overview of Student Experience of Instruction data (SEOTs, SEoIs, TEQs) highlighting excellence over time (2 pages)

• Nominations exceeding the number of pages outlined in the above sections will not be considered.
• Nomination packages must be submitted as one PDF document.
• Please consider legibility when submitting the nomination package. Packages should consider:
  • Using an accessible font (such as Times New Roman 12 pt).
  • Setting page margins to one inch on all sides.
  • Ensuring adequate spacing to support readability.
• The entire nomination package must be submitted electronically to the Provost Office at ubco.provost@ubc.ca.
  • Please note the Intent to Nominate form does not need to be included.
• Hard copies are not required and will not be considered.
• Nomination packages that are late, incomplete, or do not conform to the guidelines above will not be reviewed by the adjudication committee.