After an amazing night, here’s everything that went down at our Student Union Oscars 2024!
This year, for the first time ever, we hosted both the Student Union Oscars and the Volunteer Awards on two consecutive days. This meant that both preparation and execution had to be perfect to provide two amazing events, and we think we did a pretty good job!
Up first was our Student Union Oscars event which took place on Thursday the 4th of April. This event is designed to give a special recognition to staff members at Heriot-Watt who have gone above and beyond to provide students with the best university experience possible. All nominees were nominated by students who felt that they would like to show their gratitude to a specific individual who supported them during their studies.
The venue for the event was our very own, Zero’s, which was decorated from head to toe to provide those in attendance with a night to remember. The turnout on the night was amazing and it was great to award these hardworking individuals with the credit they deserve.
The Student Union Oscars results were as follows:
MOST SUPPORTIVE STAFF
‘This award is for an individual staff member, academic and non-academic, who goes above and beyond the requirements of their role to help and support the progression of students.’
Nominees:
- Emma Coutts
- Lee McMahon
- Fairouz Kamareddine
- Sandy Kerr
Winner – Sandy Kerr
INNOVATION IN TEACHING
‘This award is for staff who have demonstrated creative ways and methods of delivering an exciting and unique learning experience for students.’
Nominees:
- Jonathan Sheratt
- Andrew MacLaren
- Richard McCracken
Winner – Richard McCracken
OUTSTANDING SUPPORT
‘This award is for an individual or department who work exceptionally hard to improve the student experience. This can include any staff member or department who are involved in school administration, well-being services, student services, etc. The quality of nominations for this category were exceptionally high.’
Nominees:
- Jay Sharkey
- Paul Dalgarno
- Caroline West
Winner – Caroline West
PERSONAL TUTOR
‘This award is for a personal tutor who has excelled at guiding students through their academic journey, providing support, advice, and direction.’
Nominees:
- Diane Lewis
- Dr Katie Myhill
- Mairi Harkness
- Arno Kraft
Winner – Arno Kraft
BEST UNDERGRADUATE SUPERVISOR
‘These awards are for academic supervisors who went above and beyond to support students when working on their dissertation or final project, supporting them from idea to completion, giving advice and feedback.’
Nominees:
- Aurora Maccarone
- Mathew Dunnigan
- Wei Wei
- Bruce Roberts
Winner – Bruce Roberts
BEST POSTGRADUATE TAUGHT SUPERVISOR
‘These awards are for academic supervisors who went above and beyond to support students when working on their dissertation or final project, supporting them from idea to completion, giving advice and feedback.’
Nominees:
- Dr Euan Winton
- Ignacio Carlucho & Maria Koskinopoulou
- Michael Lones
Winner – Michael Lones
BEST POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH SUPERVISOR
‘These awards are for academic supervisors who went above and beyond to support students when working on their dissertation or final project, supporting them from idea to completion, giving advice and feedback.’
Nominees:
- Dr Richard McCracken
- Godawatte Arachchige
- Jessica Chen-Burger
Winner – Dr Richard McCraken
STUDENT VOICE
‘This recognises an individual or group of staff members who actively seek and use student feedback to make the student experience the very best it can be.’
Nominees:
- Ayse Arik
- Mette Sommer Lindsay
- Farnaz Mohsenpour
Winner – Farnaz Mohsenpour
ACADEMIC COMMUNITY
‘This award is for an individual or group of staff members that have done the utmost to keep classes engaged, connected, and supported despite challenges students are facing.’
Nominees:
- Andrew MacLaren
- Yvonne, Hayley, Lucy & Jane
- Swapnesh Masrani
Winner – Andrew MacLaren
GRADUATE TEACHING AWARDS
‘This award was created to specifically spotlight, recognise, and champion the work of individual academic staff who have gone above and beyond to support, improve and enhance the learning and teaching experience of students. The Graduate Teaching Award is only presented to one individual, per school, per annum, and based solely on final-year student nominations.’
School of Engineering and Physical Sciences
Winner – Andrew Moore
School of Textiles and Design
Winner – Yvonne, Hayley, Lucy and Jane
School of Social Sciences
Winner – Swapnesh Masrani
School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society
Winner – Demitrios Cotsovos
SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARDS
‘These allow the Student Union to thank teams and individuals that often do thankless work and are key to us delivering our partnership and enhancing the student experience.’
The winners of our Special Recognition Awards were:
- The Academic Quality Team
- The VLE Team
- The Sustainability Team
- The Development Alumni Office
Huge thanks to each and every one who contributed towards the planning, setting up, and running of our Student Union Oscars 2024 event. And an even bigger thanks to everyone who put fourth nominations, as these events wouldn’t be possible without students putting forward their nominations.
We hope that everyone who attended on the night had an enjoyable evening. One final congratulations must go to all our Student Union Oscars award winners!
Keep up the amazing work, and we hope to see you back in 2025!