Newman Excellence Awards has record attendees

Newman Students’ Union changed the time of their annual event resulting in it being more popular than even before. Rosie Richter, President of the SU, and Shannon Tague, Academic Representation Officer, teamed up with Katy Rees, Managing Director from Smile Education and Professor John Peters, Head of Academic Practice at Newman University to put on the awards night.

A total of 23 ‘You’re Great’ awards were given to staff to celebrate their contribution to the community, which was shortlisted from 99 nominations. A further 17 awards were given to staff and students for their work in the community, student partnership projects, learning and teaching. There were 98 nominations ranging from outstanding staff achievements to exceptional placement providers.

Student of the Year was won by Tamara Smith, third year Sports Science, for her contribution to the institution including her work on the Learning Analytics Mentoring Project. This was followed by Staff Member of the Year, in which David McLoughlin, Senior Lecturer in History, Philosophy and Theology, was given the award for always putting students first. The final award of the night was for Academic Department of the Year which was won by Drama. Graham Stephenson, Head of Drama, collected the award alongside the Drama students present.

Rosie presented guest speakers Amatey Doku, NUS Vice-President for Higher Education, Professor Duncan Lawson, PVC Formative Education, Leoarna Mathias, Transition and Retention Program Coordinator and Katy Rees with a gift, thanking them for their hard work.

The Students’ Union would like to thank everybody who attended the evening and look forward to celebrating again next year.

All photos from the evening can be found via DJB photography.