News

Teaching excellence rewarded

Students and staff celebrated top quality university teaching at the second annual EUSA Teaching Awards.

In total, 3262 nominations were submitted, with 420 academic staff, 155 courses and 55 departments being nominated for awards.

Winners were selected by a student panel and presented with their awards by students from the Student Representative Council and senior members of the University.

The awards presented, 13 in total, included the Best Department, Best Course, and Overall High Performer.

Since the EUSA Teaching Awards were launched last year, the University has developed new guidelines for properly rewarding and recognising good teaching.

This is an absolutely magnificent initiative. I think it’s helped change the way that we look at excellent teaching in the university. It’s nudged us into recognising the absolutely outstanding teaching that’s done by many of our colleagues, but it’s also compelled us to acknowledge just how many excellent teachers there are across the university.

Dai HounsellVice-Principal for Academic Enhancement

Video

Watch an interview with Dai Hounsell, Vice-Principal for Academic Enhancement, about excellence in teaching at the University.

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Winners and runners-up

Best Department

  • Informatics (winner)
  • Chemistry (runner-up)

Best Course

  • Financial Services Marketing (winner)
  • Environmental and Community Biology (runner-up)

Teaching in an International Context

  • Yoko Takahashi, Japanese (winner)
  • David Price, Centre for International Public Health Policy (runner-up)

Best Feedback

  • Fabian Hilfrich, History (winner)
  • Paul McLaughlin, Biological Sciences (runner-up)

E-Learning Award

  • Phil Scott, Informatics (winner)
  • Simon Bates, Physics (runner-up)

Innovative Teaching

  • Mark Aspinwall, Politics and International Relations (winner)
  • Sarah Colvin, German (runner-up)

PricewaterhouseCoopers Teaching Employable Skills Award

  • David Reay, GeoSciences (winner)
  • Tonks Fawcett, Nursing Studies (runner-up)

Vitae Best Postgraduate Who Tutors Award

  • Sean Brocklebank, Economics (winner)
  • Richard Brodie, Social Policy (runner-up)

Best Research Supervisor

  • Richard Taffler, Business School (winner)
  • Jan Penrose, Geography (runner-up)

Robert Kendell Award for Teaching in Medicine and Veterinary Medicine:

  • Susan Kempson, Preclinical Veterinary Sciences (winner)
  • Graham Pettigrew, Veterinary Biomedical Sciences (runner-up)

Simon van Heyningen Award for Teaching in Science and Engineering

  • Paul McLaughlin, Biological Sciences (winner)
  • Colin Anderson, Engineering (runner-up)
  • Tom Bruce, Engineering (runner-up)

Ian Campbell Award for Teaching in the Humanities and Social Sciences

  • Dimitri Tsintjilonis, Social Anthropology (winner)
  • Lotte Hoek, Social Anthropology (runner-up)

Overall High Performer

  • Richard Milne, Biological Sciences (winner)
  • Claire Hagget, Geography (runner-up)

I’ve been so pleased with how the awards have gone this year. There are some familiar faces, lecturers who continue to lead their students through their degrees with enthusiasm and passion. But, again, we’ve uncovered some fantastic teachers who haven’t been recognised in the past, including some brilliant postgraduate tutors. That’s really exciting.

Evan BeswickEUSA Vice-President Academic Affairs