1. Introduction There has been an increase in countries where teaching excellence is being explored, with teaching excellence identified in policies and practices in Europe, North and South America, Africa, and Asia (for example, see Courtney, 2014 ; Land & Gordon, 2015 ; Saunders & Blanco Ramirez, 2017 ; Broughan, Steventon & Clouder, 2018 ). Teaching excellence is having a growing impact on university lecturers globally and needs to be discussed from different angles.