Rumours were circulating throughout the late 1990s that the Australian Government was planning to make a teaching qualification a requirement for university teaching. In preparation from that likelihood the HERDSA Executive agreed to pilot a teaching recognition scheme led by Angela Brew. In 2002 Angela organised the initial group of HERDSA Fellows. The pilot recognition scheme was based on a similar scheme by the Staff and Educational Development Association in the UK.

Fellowships were intended to provide recognition of teaching based on a portfolio designed to provide a basis for an application for promotion. Each of the HERDSA Fellows was to be a member of a Fellowship triad of three registrants working with a mentor. Triads had meetings with Angela Brew whenever they hit a wall and went to an all weekend seminar with all Fellowship registrants.

Many of the pilot group of 10 Fellows were drawn from the HERDSA Executive members. Robert Kennelly was among the first non-Executive member to volunteer to be in the pilot group. He was presenting a paper at the Perth Conference when he heard Angela Brew announce she was looking for a pioneering group to establish of the HERDSA Fellowships. He put his hand up and was put into a triad with Rick Ladyshewski and Noel Farrier. They soon realised they often did not know what they were supposed to do. By the end Robert found the Fellowship experience to be very rewarding and described it as “supported, rigorous examination of his teaching practice” in HERDSA News.

Maureen Bell agrees that being a member of the pilot group was like developing the processes as they went through them. She was invited to provide feedback on the Fellowship process because of her work on peer observation and she happily agreed to join the pilot group. She was considering applying for Senior Lectureship and the portfolio would help her to clarify her thinking and document those thoughts. Maureen recalls that most of the conversations in the triads were not about their portfolios.

 ...we had quite a few interesting conversations about the process we were going through and how it could be changed...

In completing her Fellowship Maureen had come to see HERDSA as more than the conference, with a bigger role in the higher education sector. She wanted to support an organisation that had given her so much and joined the HERDSA Executive. It was common for those invited from outside the HERDSA Executive to participate in the pilot group, like Alison Viskovic, Kathryn Sutherland, Kogi Naidoo, Robert Kennelly, and Shelda Debowski, to develop closer ties with HERDSA and all went on to take a leadership role in HERDSA activities by joining the HERDSA Executive.

John Dearn became HERDSA President at the 2003 HERDSA Conference where the first HERDSA Fellowships were awarded. 

The development of the Fellowship Scheme continued throughout 2004 and it was becoming one of the key areas of HERDSA's work. Cristina Poyatos Matas took over the lead as the co-ordinator of the scheme which had two separate elements—portfolios and assessment, and ongoing professional development. Kogi Naidoo agreed to take on the ongoing professional development area while Kaya Prpic created an online discussion board for Fellows.

It was hoped that the Fellowship Scheme would start to generate its own income and funding was sought (but was ultimately unsuccessful) from the Australian Government to develop the scheme for wider take-up by universities. 

Everyone on the HERDSA Executive was assigned a portfolio and after joining the Executive in 2006 Geoff Crisp found himself in charge of Fellowships. Geoff became heavily involved in working with the Fellowship Committee to rewrite the manual and the criteria for portfolio assessment when he began to question whether he could be looking after the Fellowship Scheme as an Executive member and not have gone through the process himself. Geoff decided,

I can't really be encouraging other people to go through it if I don't do it myself. So that's when I thought, ‘Okay, I need to do this as well’. 

In those days the Fellowship Committee comprised four people and, being one short, Geoff invited Robert Kennelly, one of the original HERDSA Fellows, to join the HERDSA Executive as part of the Committee. Robert was asked to look into making the procedures and processes clearer and more transparent. Geoff found that a major challenge in the Fellowships was getting consistency in portfolio assessment. To address this Robert Kennelly recommended the Committee introduce training for the assessors.

Shelda Debowski was elected HERDSA President in 2005 and in 2008 she decided it was time to get a HERDSA Fellowship. As HERDSA President she felt it was a bit embarrassing spruiking the Fellowship when she had not become a Fellow herself. Reflection and evaluation had always been part of Shelda’s regular practice, and it was to be seen to be supporting the scheme that she registered as a fellow rather than the need to be externally assessed as being a good teacher. Reflecting on the process she recalls

... the fellowships are really strong reflective moments where one can think about one's craft and practice.

By 2010 HERDSA had 32 Fellows and Kogi Naidoo was coordinating the Fellowship Portfolio Committee. Maintenance of the Fellowship portfolio continued to require a lot of work and HERDSA Fellows remained fiercely committed to the scheme.

In 2012 Robert Kennelly was seconded back onto the HERDSA Fellowship Committee to coordinate the HERDSA Fellowships. Changes to the Fellowship scheme meant that some members who had not applied for a Fellowship in the past now saw it as something that was attainable. Iris Vardi had not seen a need to complete a HERDSA Fellowship until she was at a crossroads in terms of her career and she thought it might be a good way to focus on her next career move. Iris found completing her portfolio to be a good experience that allowed her to put on paper a range of thoughts clarifying what she wanted to do in her career.

 By the time I'd done it I was really toward the end of my career and it was a shame I hadn't done it earlier because it really would've been a really useful thing before.  Iris Vardi

2013 was the 10^th anniversary of the HERDSA Fellowship Scheme. A review of the scheme was conducted by Michelle Scoufis who recommended some major changes to process and strategy. Fellowships had become one of the HERDSA Executive's largest portfolios which was being led by Glyn Thomas, Sue Jones and Coralie McCormak. They oversaw a small but dedicated group that would meet at the Annual Fellows Get-together during the HERDSA conference.

A survey of HERDSA Fellows in 2018 confirmed their strong support for the Fellowship Scheme. A Fellow's Facebook page was created to improve the communication between Fellows. Four HERDSA Executive members decided that they would undertake the Fellowship to show the Executive supported HERDSA initiatives. Most people completing the Fellowship agree that it is difficult and required a lot of persistence to finish it. They also express the value of the process that teaches the value of deeply reflecting on the work that they do.

Deb Clarke described the HERDSA Fellowship process as one of the most rewarding things she had done.

It was really difficult and it took a lot of persistence for me to stick at it. But one of the things that it taught me was the value of really, deeply reflecting on the work that you do. I mean you come out of your tute and you go, 'yeah, yeah, that worked or that didn't work', or whatever. But you don't necessarily always think about the impact on the students and that really, fine grained reflection that you often don't have time to do. And I think the Fellowship allowed for that. 

With the decrease in HERDSA activities due to the Covid-19 restrictions, the HERDSA Executive decided to support all Executive members to become HERDSA Fellows by setting up a community of practice for Associate Fellows. Liz Levin had planned to achieve her HERDSA Fellowship someday and, having tried several times before and even started in a TATAL, she found the Fellowship too big a task to take on alone. It was only when the Executive introduced the community of practice that Liz managed to complete her Fellowship, which she would now recommend for anyone in higher education.

I think that the way the fellowship is written, it is really up to you to interpret it and to make a case. And it doesn't really matter what role you've got, whether it's an administrative role, a HEW role or somebody from the academic development or learning and teaching unit.  I think that it is broad enough for anybody to make that application.. 

HERDSA members who complete their Fellowships are often surprised to find that the HERDSA Fellowship does not have the status, support, and reputation of the Higher Education Association Fellowship. They describe the HERDSA process much more than a tick-the-box exercise and instead requires philosophical and developmental work which may make it appear more challenging and a little more exclusive than other kinds of fellowships.