The quarterly from The Undergraduate Awards
UA’s Biggest Year Yet! Celebrating 6,432 Submissions from 299 Institutions!
Congrats to St Andrews!
The UA Partner Institution is named Scotland’s Top University. Also Inside: Most Popular Topics, demographic breakdowns and more!
VOL 1, ISSUE 4
WELCOME Welcome to the Summer issue of UA Today! Here at our Dublin office, the dust is just beginning to settle after a hectic couple of weeks. The 2017 submission deadline has passed with a record number of papers and projects entered into the Programme, a total of 6,432 across our 25 categories! Our 340 international judges are now busy at work, tasked with selecting the most impressive and innovative pieces of coursework. This rigorous 4-stage process continues throughout the Summer, with the list of Highly Commended Entrants announced in early September.
In UA Partner News, we celebrate the achievement of the University of St Andrews, which was recently recognised as the best University in Scotland, by casting an eye back on some St Andrews’ students who impressed our judges in years gone by.
We hope you enjoy perusing this edition, and if you’d like some more information on this year’s entrants, you can find the full Programme Overview on our website. Enjoy!
The UA Team undergraduateawards.com
RECORD SUBMISSIONS
The 2017 Programme saw the highest number of submissions ever. The final tally was 6,432 submissions, a 17% increase from 2016!
AFFILIATES
UA Affiliate Institutions brought in over 85% of submissions to the competition. There are currently over 100 UA Affiliate Institutions and 7 Partner Institutions providing further opportunities for UA entrants and Alumni.
LITERATURE
The Literature category generated the most submissions with 724 submissions. This category also had the most diverse spread of Institutions, with all seven regions represented.
THE OPEN UNIVERSITY
GENDER
DIVERSITY
This year we gained our first ever distance learning Affiliate Institution: The Open University! The OU broke the record for the highest number of submissions from a single Institution ever.
Female students were in the majority in 20 out of the 25 different categories. 62% of all submissions came from entrants who identified as female.
This year we received submissions from a diverse pool of entrants. Approximately 115 different nationalities from 299 Institutions in 47 countries were represented in the 2017 Programme.
NEW CATEGORIES
EUROPE
JUDGES
Architecture & Design, Art History & Theory and Music, Film & Theatre were all new categories added this year. These categories contributed close to 500 submissions.
In 2016, UA was split into 7 different regions. The biggest regional increase from 2016 was in Europe, where submissions from rose by 29% from 2016.
Over 330 judges will be reviewing the submissions this year representing 35 different countries. Nanyang Technological University has 19 judges represented in this years competition.
PARTNER NEWS
ST ANDREWS NAMED BEST UNIVERSITY IN SCOTL
We were delighted to hear the news that UA
the 25 subjects it teaches, occupying the
Partner Institution, University of St Andrews,
top UK spot in two (Business & Manage-
has been named Scotland’s top University,
ment Studies and Middle Eastern & Afri-
according to a new league table.
can Studies).
The Complete University Guide 2018 ranked
Welcoming the news, Principal Professor
St Andrews as No.1 in Scotland and No.3 in
Sally Mapstone remarked:
the United Kingdom, preceded only by Oxford and Cambridge.
“This all-time high is a great endorsement of what St Andrews stands for. Our values
St Andrews’ rise from fifth to third place in the
are those of a small, Scottish, and highly
guide is believed to be due to its high scores for
international university. We are outward
teaching quality and student satisfaction with
looking, inclusive and focused on excel-
the quality of its academic programmes. It is
lence.
currently UK University of the Year for Teaching Quality.
We see teaching quality and research excellence as commensurate, and we
In separate listings covering 70 subjects,
provide them in an environment that is
St Andrews features in the top ten for 23 of
beautiful, friendly and enriching.”
PAST SUCCESS AT UA
LAND
S
ince UA launched internationally in 2012, St Andrews
has been one of the most successful Institutions to compete in the Programme. 2013 saw the first ever Global Winner from the University, Sean Butler, who won the Philosophical Studies & Theology category. Sean then decided to further pursue his interest in jurisprudence by studying Law at the University of Oxford. Another St Andrews’ student, Sam Gordine, who was Highly
St Andrews became a Partner Institution of The Undergraduate
Awards
in 2013 and since then
Commended in Life Sciences, described the UA Global Summit 2013 by remarking:“You will sleep too little, but you will
not need that lost sleep – for you will be carried on an energy wave that will last days after the Summit has ended.”
have had an active and
2015 was truly the year of St Andrews at UA with four out of
enthusiastic involvement
the twenty-five Global Winners hailing from the University, the
with the Programme.
most from any single Institution. These impressive students were Conor MacDonald (Medical Sciences), Aleksejs Sazonovs
In sity
2016
the
Univer-
(Computer Sciences), Eilidh Johnston (Mathematics & Physics)
29
Highly
and Vincent Forster (Politics & International Relations). You can
had
Commended
Entrants
in a variety of catego-
see Aleksejs and Conor celebrating their success at the UA Global Summit 2015 in the picture above!
ries, and St Andrews were the second largest contributor
of
sub-
missions to the 2017 Programme.
We have no doubt that St Andrews’ students will continue to inspire us with their bright ideas and innovative research!
If your Institution is interested in becoming a UA Partner, please contact our Accounts Manager, Ed, on ed@undergraduateawards.com
KEYWORDS Entrants to The Undergraduate Awards 2017 Programme were asked to include 5 keywords to describe their submission. The word cloud below is a visual illustration of the most popular keywords with their prevalence indicated by size.
Top 20 Keywords 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Gender Social Identity Art Theory
6. Law 7. War 8. International 9. Health 10. Human
11. Education 12. Language 13. Ethics 14. Rights 15. Policy
16. Philosophy 17. Culture 18. Development 19. Psychology 20. Feminism