Re-thinking university teaching through faculty development: Empowering academics for a student-centred approach.

As higher education institutions embrace student-centred learning models, faculty development emerges as a strategic lever for rethinking university teaching. Beyond functionalist or procedural training, what is needed is a reflective and pedagogically grounded approach that empowers academics to question assumptions, reframe practices, and respond to complex and diverse learning needs. This paper presents a case study from the QuID (Italian acronym for Quality and Didactic Innovation) programme, a faculty development initiative implemented at Sapienza University of Rome to foster meaningful and sustainable educational innovation. This study aims to analyse satisfaction and perceived utility of active learning training across three independent cohorts, providing insights into the quality and consistency of faculty development interventions across different delivery periods. The research focuses on a tutorial devoted to active learning methodologies (e.g., flipped classroom, inquiry-based learning, collaborative strategies), examining participant responses across three cohorts delivered in 2025. Through a cross-sectional analysis of post-tutorial questionnaires and minute-card feedback (n = 79 total respondents from 104 participants), the study investigates three key research questions: 1) How does faculty satisfaction with the tutorial vary across different cohorts?; 2) Which aspects of the training (content, methodologies, materials) are consistently most and least valued by participants?; 3) What are the main challenges faculty encounter when applying recently learnt methodologies in their teaching practice, and how do these vary between cohorts? The analysis combines quantitative satisfaction ratings with qualitative feedback to provide a comprehensive view of participant satisfaction and programme consistency. The study argues for a model of faculty development that promotes critical reflection, dialogue amongst peers, and situated experimentation, as opposed to prescriptive or technocentric approaches. Implications focus on quality assurance strategies for continuous faculty development programmes, offering practical insights for institutions seeking to monitor and improve their pedagogical training initiatives over time.