A NORTH-EAST lecturer has been named as one of the country's top university teachers.

Dr Patricia Egerton, head of maths at the University of Teesside, will be awarded £50,000 tomorrow, to use as part of the first National Teaching Fellowship Scheme.

Education Minister Baroness Tessa Blackstone will present the award to Dr Egerton at a ceremony in London.

Lecturers from all over the country were nominated for the competition to find the top 20 university teachers.

Dr Egerton, who has taught at Teesside for 14 years, will use her money to examine ways of teaching maths to students from other disciplines.

She said "I am naturally delighted, not to say thrilled, because these National Teaching Fellowships give recognition to the quality of teaching in our universities.

"Mathematics is embedded at the heart of our culture, from time-keeping and calendars to business, trade and the new computerised technologies, and my plans are to use the money for a project investigating how well we, in higher education, support students in learning mathematical subjects.

"My project will explore how successfully we are supporting students learning mathematics across different degrees, from computing to business and science, and compare and contrast the approaches and successes of different institutions in different countries."