This year we received 130 nominations for the Academic Rep of the Year 2019. Students and staff across UCL nominated reps who've gone the extra mile to represent students and work with staff to make students' academic experience better. The nominations are in, the judging panel has taken place, and now we can announce the winners of each of the faculty awards.
Each winner will be recognised and receive a prize at the UCL Education Awards on Thursday 30 May. We'll also be announcing one overall winner at this event! Come along and show your support. You can register here for the event.
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Christos Georgoudakis, Course Rep, Centre for Multidisciplinary & Intercultural Inquiry
Christos was described as "incredibly invested in his role as Academic Rep" and was highly commended for his proactive nature. Christos works to ensure communications to his cohort were clear, concise, and error free. Christos has built relationships with administrative and teaching staff throughout the department to communicate student feedback and get results. A real team player, he takes time to debrief with his fellow reps after student meetings and step up to cover them where needed. He was praised for his empathy, patience and understanding, making him an excellent Academic Rep.
Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment
Nanda Verschoor, Lead Department Rep, Bartlett School of Environment, Energy & Resources
Nanda has been nominated for her outstanding work as Lead Department Rep this year. Praised for her effectiveness in co-chairing SSCC meetings and being a proactive member of the Departmental Teaching Committee, Nanda provides valuable student insights to staff across the department. She consistently works hard to reflect students’ views and meticulously raises issues throughout the year. Some of Nanda's rep wins include: ensuring her peers had all the information they need to successfully complete their assessments, prompting the department to revise the content and format of coursework briefs to make the assessment requirements clearer to students, and engaging with the academic team on the module Moodle pages consistently throughout the year.
Faculty of Brain Sciences
William Lamb, Research Student Rep, Institute of Ophthalmology
Nominated for his commitment to enhancing the postgraduate research student experience in the Institute of Ophthalmology (IoO), William effectively deals with challenges faced by his cohort. William has been involved with organising co-curricular events such as a 'Meet the PGR Tutors Lunch' session, Poster Presentations Events held for Summer School, and a Dilemma Games evening for PhD students, just to name a few. He is also involved in the new IoO PGR Buddy Scheme that encourages second and third year PGR students to befriend new PGR students so that they integrate well and do not feel isolated. William was described as being "constructive in bringing about change for the better" and "ensuring that students have support and a better student experience".
Faculty of Engineering
Fania Christodoulides, Course Rep, Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering
Fania has gone above and beyond her duties as a course rep throughout the entire year, acting as liaison between staff and students. She stays up to date on course and department issues relevant to students, acts as class liaison via Moodle in response to course concerns, and seeks clarity from staff on coursework and lecture issues, always following up with her cohort. Fania raises issues at SSCCs with a solution-focused approach and is praised for being proactive in dealing with difficult challenges. Outside of the meeting room she takes the lead on organising meet-ups and socials with inclusivity at the forefront showing "genuine care and kindness towards those around her".
Institute of Education
Myrofora Kakoulidou, Research Student Rep, UCL Psychology & Human Development
"She has made the student voice an art". Commended for her enthusiasm and perseverance as a Research Student Rep, Myrofora organised a series of informal seminars to ease PGR students into academia and celebrate the good sides of being a doctoral candidate especially for first year research students. She has increased participation of students in the department through the use of social media and is encouraging and selfless when it comes to sending information around that make students more aware of the opportunities they can take advantage of in the wider university. Myrofora has contributed to the education and assessment of the doctoral route through raising issues of clarity and initiating student feedback meetings.
Faculty of Laws
Choi Ching Jack, Course Rep, Laws
Choi Ching Jack received many commendations from his peers this year, who describe him as dedicated, supportive and approachable in his role as Course Rep. He secured a vending machine for the Bentham House café which proves especially useful during non-term time and outside of café opening hours. Choi Ching Jack is an excellent interlocutor between the student body and the faculty; students feel it is easy to voice any concerns or address any problems through him. Choi Ching Jack is praised for meeting up with faculty on a weekly basis so that challenges are dealt with efficiently. His peers believe that it is by his efforts that "the relationship between student and faculty is at an all time high".
Faculty of Life Sciences
Martha Watson, Lead Department Rep, Division of Biosciences
"Martha's work will undoubtedly provide future cell biology students with the academic, career, scientific and social support needed to make the most of their time at UCL". Martha has been nominated for her commitment to the development of students within her department. She actively sought out funding for a Changemakers Project with a member of staff to explore a 'student' section of a new Cell Biology domain. Martha recruited a PhD student to the project and collaboratively they canvassed student opinions from all levels of study and from this, they have put together student focused content for the website. Martha is commended for taking her role as Academic Rep seriously, surveying and collating student opinion before each meeting, encouraging positive feedback as well as negative.
Faculty of Mathematical & Physical Sciences
Alexa Marroquin, Course Rep, Chemistry
Alexa was nominated for her commitment to closing the feedback loop between staff and students. Alexa keeps her cohort up-to-date with department, faculty and institutional changes. She is praised for her willingness to raise complex issues with staff and for always standing up for student views. A great win that Alexa achieved this year was liaising with staff to restore Lecturecast after a technical fault. She reported the issue, tracked the responses and communicated updates to her cohort. The problem was solved quickly with minimal impact on the student experience.
Faculty of Medical Sciences
George Choa, Lead Department Rep, UCL Medical School
In his seventh year as an Academic Rep, George represents over 1000 medical students within the UCL Medical School and is considered a "fierce ally to the students who he represents". He was nominated for always looking for new ways to engage with students, whether this means introducing new methods or improving the ones that already exist. George is praised for not just communicating but acting on the student voice. Some of his rep wins include: continuing 24-hour library opening times over the summative exam weekends for clinical students, increasing provisions in clinical medicine exams, being involved in a Curriculum Mapping project that enables better and more productive learning, and developing new teaching methods with individual staff members to provide a better student educational experience.
Faculty of Population Health Sciences
Martin Islam, Course Rep, Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care
Martin was nominated for acting as an outstanding mediator between academic staff and students enhancing staff-student collaboration. He has an incredible rapport with both academic staff and fellow students, and is described as "truly invested in improving the learning experience of the programme". Martin established a journal club focusing on the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to improve population health. He is valued for his efforts of recruiting high profile external speakers to host panel discussions and industry talks giving students the opportunity to talk and network with key actors in the field.
Faculty of Social & Historical Sciences
Lena Fricker & Ananya Samuel [co-winners], Lead Department Reps, Geography
Lena and Ananya are co-chairs of the Geography Department SSCC and have been nominated for being a team of two exceptional leaders. Going above and beyond the usual practice of collating student feedback, following up on actions with academic staff and putting together meeting agendas, Lena and Ananya are always looking for opportunities to do new events that improve academic support in the department. Some of these events include a session by 3rd year students offering advice on how to get started on dissertations to 2nd year students at the beginning of the dissertation process and an event where undergraduates could talk to each other about module choices at the end of the academic year. Together they have been a positive and productive force within the department.