Officer Blog 27/04/2012

One of the best things about working in the Union is finding out about all the amazing things that this university does.

A lot of my time is spent working on issues that are brought to me, so the Teaching Awards were such a change from the usual. It’s so important that we recognise the hard work that’s going on here at UCLan, which is why we decided to run the awards. And what a success it was!

We received over 550 nominations in three weeks, 250 more than I had aimed for. So, I want to say a massive thank you to every single one of you that submitted a nomination and encouraged others to do so. And also a huge thank you to all the course reps that helped to promote the awards. It doesn’t matter how much planning I put in to things, it’s you, the students, who make it successful. Be proud of yourselves!

Selecting who to shortlist was a daunting task, but I had a wonderful panel to help me. Two of our school reps, Steven Seymour and Keara Lynch, our new Education Officer elect Joey Guy, and Pam Houghton who is from the Learning Development Unit in the university joined me to go through each nomination. It was brilliant to see some of the lovely comments that had been submitted.

But there had to be some winners, all of which fully deserved the awards. They were:

Outstanding Personal Tutor - Nicola Halenko (TESOL)

Outstanding Feedback - Samir Vohra (Pharmacy)

Most Supportive Tutor - Rod Train (Events Management)

Best Module Tutor - Andy Owen (Sports Turf Science @ Myerscough)

Best University Support Service - The ‘I’

Best Course Team - Counselling and Psychotherapy Studies

Best Teaching Award - Susan Twist (Law)

Most Passionate Lecturer - Shaun Mills (Law)

Best Subject – Pharmacy

Special Mention – 4 Week Challenge

So from the Union, I want to say a huge well done, not just to them, but everyone who was nominated and short listed.

If anyone would like to see the nomination comments for the winners, please email me at sueducation@uclan.ac.uk.