Royal Literary Fund Fellowships offer professional writers the opportunity to work for two days a week in a university helping students to develop their writing skills.
Duration of the Fellowship
Fellowships run during the academic year (generally from around mid-September to mid-May).
Timetable during Term
The Fellow commits to be available for contact with students on two regular days a week for 30 weeks. An additional half-day each week may be required of the Fellow as time spent in preparation/ liaison with staff and RLF/ review, etc. (though this time is spent off campus).
Payment
The writer enters into a Consultancy Agreement with the RLF. The writer is responsible for tax and National Insurance on the consultancy fee which will be £16,000 for the academic year 2024/25.
Location
The RLF runs the scheme in partnership with higher education institutions (HEIs) throughout the UK:
Guiding Principles
- the aim of the RLF Fellowship is to foster good writing practice among students through one-to-one coaching;
- while working in a collaborative arrangement alongside staff at the HEI, the Fellow remains self-employed, working outside departmental lines of reporting;
- the work of the Fellow is designed to provide ‘added value’ to whatever systems of student support exist at the HEI; the promotion and operation of the Fellowship must reflect its independence from these other systems;
- the details of the Fellow’s work with each student are confidential and will not be shared with staff at the HEI without the express permission of the student; however, at the year end, a statistical overview of the students seen by the Fellow, along with anonymous case studies, will be provided to the host department;
- the Fellow will determine their own approach to teaching although they shall always have due regard to the RLF’s best practice guidelines and to the terms of the RLF letter of appointment;
- while on site, the Fellow should show due regard for the HEI’s equal opportunities/ diversity policies, its safeguarding procedures and its health & safety regulations;
- the Fellow will work with students on a one-to-one basis;
- the main focus of the Fellow’s work will be on the development of student writing skills/ academic literacy (rather than on creative self-expression as with the conventional writer’s residency);
- the Fellowship service may be promoted to students at all levels of ability (above ‘remedial’) and across the disciplines;
- the Fellow is not required to undertake tasks beyond the remit of the Fellowship, for example, dyslexia support, and basic skills or EFL/EAP tuition – nor, at any time, to perform duties normally carried out by staff, such as, course design or delivery, marking, invigilating;
- the Fellow is free to negotiate paid work from the HEI (or any other party) outside the days allocated to Fellowship work;
- the Fellow retains all intellectual property rights in materials that they may write for use by students/staff at the HEI, except that the RLF shall have free and unrestricted (non-commercial) use of these materials (for its own purposes) in perpetuity.
Further information:
About the RLF Fellowship scheme