RUSU Excellence Awards
This year’s RUSU Excellence Award winners were due to be awarded their trophies after Easter at the RUSU Partnership in Teaching and Learning Showcase. Despite the showcase having to be postponed this year, we still want to celebrate those who are working collaboratively across the university and say well done to all the winners and nominees.
“I do my job because I love working with students and helping them to realise their potential – I can’t think of a more rewarding job and it means such a lot to know that you are actually making a difference to people. The fact that this is based on student nomination makes it very special indeed.” ~ Prof Bob Rastall (Teaching Excellence Award Winner for Life Sciences)
The RUSU Excellence Awards initiative was inspired by the true spirit of collaboration existing between staff and students across the university, coming together to solve issues creatively and improve the teaching and learning experience.
These awards remain student-led and this year RUSU received over 186 nominations! The RUSU Full-time Officer team shortlisted the nominees before Easter and had the tough job of narrowing down all the hundreds of nominations to decide the final winners.
| Award | Winner |
| Academic Tutor Excellence Award | Prof. Simon Mortimer |
| Diverse and Inclusive Teaching Excellence Award | Wendy McLean |
| Graduate Teaching Assistant Excellence Award | Sophie Oduyale |
| Outstanding Student/Staff Partnership Excellence Award | Amanda Millmore |
| Support Staff Excellence Award | Sue Wallace |
| Technology Enhanced Learning Excellence Award | Dr. Nicola Abram |
| Teaching Excellence Award for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences | Ilan Dwek |
| Teaching Excellence Award for Business | Edel Byrne |
| Teaching Excellence Award for Life Sciences | Prof. Bob Rastall |
| Teaching Excellence Award for Science | Dr. Rob Hosfield |
| Course Rep of the Year | Leah Logan |
| School Rep of the Year | Sara Dahash |
All nominees also received notification of their nominations last week and some responded with such heartwarming messages – we thought this one was especially lovely.
“Thank you very much for this wonderful news! I have only been at Reading since last October, so it is really great to hear that my students have enjoyed and benefitted from my teaching. Thanks for giving a bounce to my step today!” ~ Dr. Dave McLaughlin, Teaching Fellow in Human Geography (Climate & Development) nominee for Teaching Excellence in Science.
The Partnership showcase was then born out of the Excellence Awards as an event to help recognise these winners further and usually is a real highlight in the T&L calendar. Despite not being able to come together this year to celebrate in person, RUSU has sent the winners signed certificates and email signature stamps and will be ordering the trophies for collection in future. We hope to hold the Showcase later in the year to celebrate all the hard work and successes of the nominees; keep an eye out on RUSU social media for any updates. For more info on the awards, please go to rusu.co.uk/awards.