The NUS Awards, held in partnership with Endsleigh, celebrate the outstanding work of students’ unions, student media and individual students from across the UK.
This award has been given out for four years and stretches over thirteen categories including Endsleigh Student of the Year, Equality and Diversity Award and Higher Education Students’ Union of the Year amongst others.
The judging panel was made up of a number respected and important people in the education and campaigning sectors including to Director of Liberty Shami Chakrabarti, the BBC’s Sean Coughlan and Endsleigh Managing Director Ian Passmore. The panel whittled down the 391 entries to a final shortlist of 42 amazing campaigns and work that students have contributed to improving unions students’ lives across the UK.
One finalist in the Student of the Year category is Tayaba Nicholson from the University of Manchester who was been nominated for her amazingly beneficial Mental Health Campaign. She has brought awareness of mental health to her university and the students’ union by raising over £2000 for a fund to install a memorial bench. The seat is shaped like a phone and is painted purple with a plaque engraved with several helpline numbers students can contact.
She has achieved such success of her campaign through running a monthly film night and discussion which highlights some key messages about mental health. Tayaba has also set up positive mental health workshops, a positive anonymous letter event where students write positive letters to one another without identification and a gardening project which is situated behind the bench where students go out and garden and socialising which induces a positive state of mind.
Another student nominee is Emily Nix from the University of Sheffield has been nominated for her work which far overreaches her job at hand. She is involved with many leading community and charity projects to help expand participation through outreach activities among other programmes.
Emily has also set up a number of outreach programmes involving over eighty secondary school students, encouraging them to optimistically consider university, to become engineers and global thinkers.
Ross Grant from Aberdeen University has also been nominated due to his work to improve the community, charity work, building a relationship between his local community and a community in Uganda as well as supporting a number of successful anti-school closer campaigns in Aberdeen. His work has meant that schools will continue to play their part in society and benefit the community.
The full list of finalists:
Endsleigh Student of the Year
Ross Grant - Aberdeen University Students' Association
Tayaba Nicholson - University of Manchester Students' Union
Emily Nix - Sheffield Students’ Union
Endsleigh Technology Innovation Award
Liverpool Guild of Students and Liverpool Students’ Union (joint nomination)
University of Derby Students' Union
University of York Students' Union
Further Education Students’ Union of the Year
Canterbury College Students' Union
Cornwall College Students' Union
Dudley College Students' Union
Higher Education Students' Union of the Year
Leeds University Union
Loughborough Students' Union
Northumbria Students' Union
Queen's University Belfast Students' Union
University of Bath Students' Union
University of Exeter Students’ Guild
Best Student Media
The National and London Student Journalism Support Networks
Forge Media - Sheffield Students’ Union
Nouse - University of York Students' Union
Campaign of the Year
Bradford College Students' Union- Save the FreeCityBus
Edinburgh University Students' Association - Write to Mike
Goldsmiths Students' Union- Save the nursery
Club or Society of the Year
Exchange 360 - Edinburgh University Students’ Association
Mental Wealth - Cardiff University Students' Union
SIFE Sussex - University of Sussex Students' Union
Community Relations Award
Chester Students' Union
Sheffield Students’ Union
Students' Union Bournemouth University
Course Representative of the Year
Beth Fazackerley - Northumbria Students' Union
Jonathan Isaacs –University of Salford Students' Union
Francesca Rust & Emily Short - Anglia Ruskin Students' Union
Equality and Diversity Award
Cardiff University Students' Union
Northumbria Students’ Union
Queen's University Belfast Students' Union
Simpson King Students’ Union Staff Member of the Year
Graham Atkinson – Northumbria Students' Union
Kathryne Fraser – Sheffield Students’ Union
Chris Spencer – Loughborough Students' Union
Student Journalist of the Year
Matthew Burgess - Sheffield Students’ Union
Simon Murphy - Newcastle University Union Society
Nick Stylianou- Students' Union Royal Holloway, University of London
Student Unionist of the Year
Ben Dowen - Sheffield Hallam University Students' Union
Kim Hughes - Dudley College Students' Union
Tas Siddeeque - Loughborough Students' Union