STARS Awards

This award is designed to recognise those individuals or teaching teams who, in the view of their peers and/or students, have significantly enhanced the student learning experience in the current academic year, either through innovative teaching methods or the content of their teaching.  This should have, in turn, led to successful learning outcomes for students.  Those nominated for this award should have shown the ability to motivate and engage students to help them achieve specific learning objectives, demonstrating enthusiasm, knowledge and a genuine passion for their subject area.

This award is designed to recognise those individuals or research teams who, in the view of their peers and/or students, have carried out research that is ground-breaking in the application of new approaches or methods of enquiry.  It includes research that is innovative in method or target population as well as enterprise activities, which have had a major positive impact on the reputation of UWS and which have contributed significantly to strengthening the links between research and teaching.  Activity in this area should also have had a positive influence on research informed teaching within the subject area.

This award is designed to recognise outstanding service provided by staff to students, and will be an individual or team who embraces the ethos of best practice and who:

• delivers on promises
• thinks about how best to meet students' needs
• treats students with respect, acting positively on feedback to provide an excellent service and striving for continuous improvement
• is flexible and pro-active in order to improve services and performance
• builds good working relationships, effectively communicating, sharing ideas and information
• has a professional and forward-thinking approach and is not afraid to tackle difficult issues
• looks to adopt changes that improve services to students, either directly or indirectly

This award is designed to recognise outstanding service provided by staff to their colleagues, either within or outwith their own department/school, and will be an individual or team who embraces the ethos of best practice and who:

• delivers on promises
• thinks about how best to meet their colleagues' needs
• treats colleagues with respect, acting positively on feedback to provide an excellent service and striving for continuous improvement
• is flexible and pro-active in order to improve services and performance
• builds good working relationships, effectively communicating, sharing ideas and information
• has a professional and forward-thinking approach and is not afraid to tackle difficult issues
• looks to adopt changes that improve services to staff either directly or indirectly

This award is designed to recognise a person who has led either an individual or team to exceed all expectations in terms of performance and service delivery, as viewed by those who work for that individual.  This person:

• is instrumental in improving team performance and the department/school/faculty
• supports and develops the team and maintains a vibrant working environment
• is an effective and frequent communicator with staff
• fosters a culture of enthusiasm, energy and creativity in their staff
• enhances staff morale by being supportive on an equitable basis to each individual

This award is designed to recognise a team of staff who have worked together to deliver outstanding results in their work area.  It is expected that a team would normally consist of no more than 10 colleagues.  This will be a team which:

• has team members who are committed and work well together
• builds effective and strong working relationships with others
• co-operates with others in their own department and across other departments
• works flexibly and creatively to deliver excellence in their area