A FORMER postman and mature student has been saluted for his outstanding contribution to teaching and learning.

Dr Tony Nicholson, from the University of Teesside's history department is to receive £50,000 as the winner of a National Teaching Fellowship.

The award recognizes his "outstanding contribution to excellence" in teaching and learning, and is the fourth National Teaching Fellowship achieved by teaching staff at the Middlesbrough university.

Dr Nicholson, who is principal lecturer of history and university teaching fellow, said: "There are thousands of very able teachers in higher education who are doing great work in their fields, so it is a real honour to be selected.

"As well as the personal recognition, it is a great recognition of the importance we attach to teaching in the University of Teesside.

"My projects have been focused on history, but the skills we are helping our students to develop are transferable and can be used in every area of life."

Dr Nicholson plans to spend the £50,000 award on the digitisation of local and regional texts as learning and teaching aids, development of online learning and of a community learning and research network.

Dr Nicholson is also a former secondary school English teacher and the founder of an arts centre.

An interest in the history of his home village of Brotton, east Cleveland, developed into a love of history, and he was soon back in the classroom as student at the then Teesside Polytechnic.

Once his PhD on the Cleveland ironstone communities was completed, Dr Nicholson worked as a museum curator while lecturing in the evenings.