Napier announces teaching award winners

The winners of Napier Students' Association's (NSA) first ever teaching awards, launched in December 2009, were announced last week.

The two awards asked students to nominate their favourite tutor and Personal Development Tutor (PDT).

Best tutor went to Sara Patricia Wasson of the Culture, Media & Society degree, while best PDT went to Jacqui Charlton from Adult Nursing. Both winners will be recognised at a ceremony later this month.

Spearheaded by the president of NSA, Kasia Bylinksa, the awards have provided valuable feedback on what students believe constitutes noteworthy teaching.

Stuart Campbell, senior campaigns and representation officer at NSA, told The Journal: “It’s hard to say what effect the campaign’s results will have on the long term but it has definitely been a way for students to positively respond to lectures and relations with their professors; giving awards will help that relationship. We hope for positive results.”

Although inspired by Edinburgh University Students' Association's (EUSA) teaching awards, NSA’s campaign differs in focusing only on tutors, excluding professors from the nominations.

However, the comments will serve as useful guidelines that may be applied to the way teaching at all levels is evaluated at the university.

Last year's NSS (National Student Survey) revealed that student’s ratings of professor's feedback on their work ranked Edinburgh University was the worst in the UK (37 percent)—and Napier not so far behind (56 percent).

However, since EUSA's first teaching awards held last year, this improved slightly with the university now ranked fourth worst in the UK.

The positive feedback from both students and teachers has been reflected in the interest in this year’s nominations for EUSA’s teaching awards with 2727 nominations received so far for 279 teachers.

Evan Beswick, EUSA's vice president of academic affairs, told The Journal: “The number of teachers nominated is much less than last year yet there has been a similar amount of students nominating. So it's lots of multiple results and, if anything, it's become a much more concentrated, dare I say exclusive, poll of students' top teachers.

“The interest in the awards is fantastic. People are more focused and have got a lot more engaged on issues to do with teaching and learning, such as thinking more about the way the lectures are presented."

Craig Stewart, EUSA's academic adviser and awards administrator said: “There's a perception within the university and beyond that academics care more about their research than about teaching, and we wanted to even up that balance a bit.

“Staff really appreciate the nominations. It’s really good for them because they really value teaching.”