2023
STUDENT CHOICE AWARDS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
President Welcome Message
The Students' Union
Introduction
Programme of Events
The Awards
The Shortlisted Nominees
The Judging Process
A Thank You
www.uswsu.com
SU PRESIDENT WELCOME MESSAGE
Jamal Abdilahi SU President
Thank you for joining us at the Student Choice Awards this evening, it is a pleasure to welcome you to the Students' Union and celebrate the hard work of our University community. It has been incredible that we have received over 1,200 nominations this year, which shows the quality of work that has occurred this year.
I hope that you enjoy the evening, I look forward to seeing even more nominations in next years ' Student Choice Awards and good luck to those who are up for an award tonight!
THE STUDENTS' UNION
We are a democratic organisation independent of the University and run by students, for students. Every year a team of Executive Officers are elected by the student body to represent and guide the Students’ Union. Representing three regions, (Newport, Cardiff and Pontypridd) the Executive Officers work together with a team of dedicated part-time Officers, staff and volunteers to make sure you get the most out of your education and student experience.
From activities, events and venues to volunteering and skill-development, we strive to make sure you have the chance to enrich every aspect of your student life. We support over 100 clubs, teams and societies, 700 SVR and Course Reps and annually hold over 150 events at our venues. So whether you want to develop your skills, become a representative on your course or socialise with friends, we ’ ve got it all And because we ’ re for students, not for profit, we make sure every investment you make at your SU is put back into the things you care about most
As the recognised voice of students at the University of South Wales, we support students that want to campaign on the issues you care about and ensure the student body – a collective voice of over 28,000 students is heard at the highest level. The Students’ Union is all about representing you, so if there’s something you need, we can help. Every student is a member of the Union, regardless of whether you are a full-time, part-time, undergrad or postgrad student, so if we aren’t currently providing something you’d like us to, drop in and talk to us.
OUR 23/24 SABBATICAL OFFICERS
Recently, we have successfully elected four full time officers to represent students and lead the SU during the 2023/24 academic year!
Jamal Abdilahi SUPresident
Cheryl Chingosho VPWelfare
Sofia Soberon VPEducation
Kenul Herath VPActivities
AN INTRODUCTION
The Student Choice Awards is a highlight on our social calendar and focuses on highlighting the amazing commitments, dedication and enthusiasm of staff and students. The awards have been running for over 10 years and whilst they may differ year on year, they always have the focus of celebrating students and staff at their heart.
We'd like to thank you for joining us tonight and offer our congratulations to all those who have been nominated. We received over 1,200 nominations this year which our judging panel shortlisted to just 48!
It has been fantastic to see so many incredible nominations that showcases how lucky we are to be involved in such a fantastic community.
Remember to tag us @USWSU on socials and use the hashtag #USWSU - we'd love to see your photos of this evening!
ORDER OF EVENTS
OPENING REMARKS
CEO Sian Taylor and SU President Jamal Abdilahi
STUDENT CHOICE AWARDS | WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO OUR NOMINEES?
OPENING REMARKS CONTINUED
CEO Sian Taylor and SU President Jamal Abdilahi
BEST LECTURER
Presented by Jamal Abdilahi
APPRENTICE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE YEAR (ENGLAND)
Presented by Rebecca Prout - Head of Operational Policing
COURSE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE YEAR
Presented by Jamal Abdilahi
BEST COURSE LEADER
Presented by Sofia Soberon (Chair of SVF) and Rob Bailey (FBCI SVR)
STUDENT VOICE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE YEAR
Presented by Jamal Abdilahi
BEST SUPERVISOR
Presented by Jamal Abdilahi
STUDENT
COUNCILLOR OF THE YEAR
Presented by Jamal Abdilahi
OUTSTANDING STUDENT SUPPORT
Presented by Cheryl Chingosho (Chair of Student Council)
MOST INSPIRATIONAL STUDENT
Presented by Professor Donna Whitehead - Deputy Vice Chancellor
THE STAFF AWARD FOR STUDENT PARTNERSHIP
Presented by Jamal Abdilahi
SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD
Presented by Jamal Abdilahi
CLOSING REMARKS
THE AWARDS
The Student Choice Awards is separated into two categories - Staff and Student with five award types available for both.
Students and Staff were able to submit nominations for those they believed deserved to be celebrated via a form published on our website. These nominations were then long listed and authenticated (to ensure they met the eligibility requirements) before being anonymised.
The long-list was then presented to our judging panel who ranked nominees for each award, the top three highest ranked were then carried forward to the short list.
The judging panel then followed the same process to decide on a winner - a difficult task due to the high quality of nominations we received!
THE STAFF AWARDS
Best Lecturer
The Best Lecturer Award is available to any teaching staff across the University of South Wales. One award per faculty is up for grabs as well as the overall Winner of Winners Best Lecturer award!
Best Course Leader
The Best Course Leader award celebrates those who are the lead staff member across a course. One award per faculty is up for grabs as well as the overall Winner of Winners Best Course Leader award!
Best Academic Supervisor
This award celebrates a member of staff has supervised a dissertation or research project. One award per faculty is up for grabs as well as the overall Winner of Winners Best Academic Supervisor award!
Outstanding Student Support
This award is for the non-teaching members of staff - they can be from a wide range of services available at USW. From the library to wellbeing services these members of staff are dedicated to helping students reach their potential.
The Staff Award for Student Partnership
This award is designed to celebrate those staff members who consider their students as partners in their learning. A partnership is different from just hearing your feedback, its about working with and recognising students' contribution, respecting their views and ensuring students play a recciprocal role towards improvements.
BEST LECTURER SHORTLISTED NOMINEES
Faculty of Business and Creative Industries:
Hannah Coburn
Jessica Emmanuel
Antara Arif
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science:
Lewis Fall
Lyn Evans
Hannah Seale
Faculty of Life Sciences and Education:
Mike Kay
Rachel Taylor
Tom Owens
BEST COURSE LEADER SHORTLISTED NOMINEES
Faculty of Business and Creative Industries:
Francis Arhin
Hannah Coburn
Julie Kissick
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science:
Christopher Tubb
Lewis Fall
Mia Lambert
Faculty of Life Sciences and Education:
Janine Vickery
Rachel Taylor
Stacey Rees
BEST SUPERVISOR SHORTLISTED NOMINEES
Faculty of Business and Creative Industries:
Marta Minier and Diana Wallace
Simon Thomas
Ismaila Yusuf
Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Science:
Mark Boulter
Michael Morse
Rebecca Lakin
Faculty of Life Sciences and Education:
Precious O'Driscoll
Stacey Rees
Tom Owens
OUTSTANDING STUDENT SUPPORT
SHORTLISTED NOMINEES
Claire Davies
Jose Lopez Blanco
Sue Burkin
THE STAFF AWARD FOR STUDENT PARTNERSHIP SHORTLISTED NOMINEES
Hannah Seale
Karl Luke
Trevor Harris
THE STUDENT AWARDS
Course Rep of the Year
Course representatives are students who have been elected by their peers to represent their cohort at course level. There are over 500 course reps elected each year and nominees for this award are those who do a great job in ensuring they take all your feedback to the Course Leader and that it is responded to. They may also be consistent in alerting students on updates and changes to the course.
SVR of the Year
SVRs are the strategic voice of students in the faculty. The best SVRs check with their Course Reps to see if there are any issues they need to raise at meetings, are dedicated to taking student feedback forward to staff and are approachable and helpful when tackling issues brought to them by other students.
Student Councillor of the Year
Our Student Council is full of students who wish to make sure every student is represented on non-academic issues. Nominations are Councillors are those who have positively impacted the student body.
Apprentice Representative (England) of the Year
USW offers a range of apprentice courses across both England and Wales - with those being studied on USW campuses being encompassed into the Students' Union Representation structures. The Apprentice provision in England (which currently consists of courses in Operational Policing) utilise their own system of representation This award looks to celebrate the Apprentice reps who work hard to raise the concerns of their fellow apprentices at places such as SSELGs.
Most Inspirational Student
Any student can be nominated for this award and nominations are often individuals that have shown commendable dedication to the student experience. They may have been friendly, helpful willing to help others, overcome hardship or done something out of the ordinary.
COURSE REP OF THE YEAR
SHORTLISTED NOMINEES
Megan Phillips
Georgia Powell
Jiboku Anuoluwapo
STUDENT VOICE REP OF THE YEAR
SHORTLISTED NOMINEES
Jordan Iles-Lewis
Rob Bailey
Sofia Soberon
STUDENT COUNCILLOR OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED NOMINEES
Athena Paschou
Cheryl Chingosho
Chidi Obeka
APPRENTICE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE YEAR (ENGLAND)
SHORTLISTED NOMINEES
James Howells
Daniel Gill
Kristie Somerville
MOST INSPIRATIONAL STUDENT SHORTLISTED NOMINEES
Sonia Andreou
Tina Hagerty and Kelly Evans
Oyindamola Olufayo
THE SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARD
Newly introduced for 2023, the Special Recognition Award aims to celebrate the consistent dedication and commitment to the enhancement of the student experience through their work.
This award is open to any staff or student(s) regardless of their role within the University. This allows those that are consistently celebrated to be acknowledged for continuous good practice and encourage sustained practice in addition to celebrating the hard work of staff and students.
To be nominated for this award, a member of our Executive Officer team must act as a sponsor and submit a nomination for the individual that they feel is deserving for this award. Staff and students are unable to propose recipients for this awards.
THE JUDGING PROCESS
After the nomination window closed, the next stage was to create a shortlist and then decide on a winner To do this, the Students' Union established dedicated Student Choice Award Judging Panels which consisted of staff and learners across both the Students' Union and the University
The process to decide a winner for the Student Choice Awards was:
Longlisting
All nominations were screened to remove any spoilt submissions, ensure eligibility and check for accuracy. All nominations were then given a unique identifier before being anonymised - creating our longlist.
Shortlisting
The longlist was uploaded to our website using the voting widget with the rationale for nominations being merged to create a single rationale for panelists to consider
Panelists then voted and ranked nominations using the widget which automatically ranked the nominations. The top three nominations then became our shortlist.
Deciding a Winner
The shortlisted nominees were then presented to the judging panel and each panelist will then vote through the same process as the shortlist, to produce a winner.
A HEARTFELT THANK YOU
We'd like to take some time to thank you all for your attendance this evening and continued support of the Student Choice Awards. It is a real honour that we are able to organise these awards annually; it truly is a highlight of our calendar.
This evening would simply not been possible without all of your outstanding work this year and those who took time out of their day to nominate someone for an award. This year we received over 1,200 nominations and we hope to see this increase next year!
1235 NOMINATIONS 904 STAFF NOMINATIONS 331 STUDENT NOMINATIONS 65 PARTNER NOMINATIONS