Staff celebrate success at the Student Academic Choice Awards

College staff were recognised this week at Imperial College Union's annual Student Academic Choice Awards (SACAs).

The SACAs are now in their fourth year, recognising staff for their contributions to education and the student experience at the College.

This year’s awards, which received 614 nominations via the union website, saw eight awards presented to staff at a ceremony on Monday evening.

Imperial College Union’s Deputy President (Education), Chun-Yin San, hosted this year’s ceremony, which featured prizes for academic and support staff as well as an award for graduate teaching assistants.

Chun-Yin said: “The Student Academic Choice Awards are a way for us – the students – to say thank you to all the wonderful staff who work for our benefit here at Imperial.

“It’s about saying thank you to those of you and your colleagues who work tirelessly behind the scenes, making sure that life on campus is on-script, and that students have access to the communities, the services, and the platforms that really allow them to shine and fulfil their potential.”

This year’s winner of the Best Support Staff award is Anna Townsend, Senior Programme Coordinator in the Business School. One of her student nominators said in their submission: “Anna has been absolutely vital to the complicated logistical aspects involved in running the Imperial Global MBA course, which has required immense coordination of faculty and graduate students. I have been amazed at the warmth and dedication Anna has instilled in this business school program, and her attentiveness to students’ needs.”

Professor Horbury (right) with his award

Professor Tim Horbury (Physics) won the SACA for Best Teaching for Undergraduates. He said: “I was genuinely shocked to win and I’m really grateful to the students who nominated me. I was sure that I had no chance of winning because I lecture in a pretty old fashioned “chalk and talk” kind of way. In fact, I’ve based the first year Mechanics course I’m teaching at the moment on the notes I took when I was taught Mechanics, by David Websdale, when I was an undergraduate in the Physics department in 1989. So really he deserves the award not me!”

Speaking at the event Imperial’s Provost, Professor James Stirling, said: “The Student Academic Choice Awards are a chance to see what excellence looks like in teaching, supervision and student support, as well as recognise colleagues who are already delivering it.

“The event is genuinely one of my favourite of the year, and it is incredibly touching to see how much these awards mean to the winners as they go up to collect their prizes.”

A judging panel of student representatives narrowed down the nominations to a shortlist of six nominees in each category before choosing the eventual winner.