Nearly two hundred staff and students gathered in Atmosphere last night to celebrate the fourth annual Student’s Union Teaching Awards.  The Awards recognise excellence in teaching, supervision and support and are entirely student nominated and chosen.  An astounding 700 nominations were received, and over 220 individual staff nominated across 9 categories – students really took the opportunity to highlight the fantastic teaching here at Salford.

In her opening speech Fiza Ikram, Union President said “As well as celebrating with you, our awards scheme is designed to encourage best practice sharing, and consistency across the institution.  Please take this opportunity to feedback to your colleagues and help us to drive innovative and engaging practice for our students.  This University is great, but it can be even greater – and we know that those of you in the room today are the people to drive that improvement”

In addition to the staff awards, the fantastic work of Student Reps and School Reps was recognised, with two Reps taking home the coveted awards.  Student Reps provide a crucial vehicle for student feedback and opinion and are the foundation upon which the Union’s representation structures are based.

The first award of the evening ‘Best Academic Support staff’ was presented to Suzanne Waugh for her maths tutoring with Nursing students, an award that saw a high number of nominations across the institution.  The award recognises the vital contribution that support staff offer the student experience.  The ‘Best Personal Tutor’ award was presented to Catherine Croughan who won within a shortlist wholly made up of staff from Nursing, Midwifery, Social Work and Social Sciences.  Vice President Jasmine Pokuaa emphasised that the model of tutoring used in this school should be used as a model across the University.

Alex Fenton from Salford Business School was awarded ‘Best Postgraduate Supervisor’ for his work with students in Marketing, and in the first ever ‘Best Professional Services staff’ award, Annette Cooke from Governance Services was recognised for her work assisting students with procedural and regulatory matters.

This year’s ‘Best Student Rep’ is Zuzanna Czyzowska from Salford Business School, and ‘Best School Rep’ was awarded to Richard Moore from Environment and Life Sciences. 

Another new category ‘Best Society Support’ was described by Vice President Todd Hewitt as a way of “rewarding staff support for course-based societies, which have a clear benefit for students’ academic progress and success”.  Thurai Rahulan was presented the award by Nick Valentine, the Chair of the Engineers’ Union.

Paul Tracey from the School of the Built Environment was presented with the ‘Most Innovative Teacher’ award, and also received the ‘Best Teacher for the College of Science and Technology’ award.  A Best Teacher for each College was presented with Huw Morgan (Business and Law), Christine Ratcliff (Arts and Media) and Maureen McGrath (Health and Social Care) taking their respective College’s accolade.  The overall Best Teacher for 2015 was then presented to Christine Ratcliff.

The Union congratulates all nominated staff and Reps.