King’s Education Awards: Colleagues’ Choice

Open to: Academics
Open to: Individuals 

This award recognises an individual who not only shows passion and commitment to their own discipline but also excels in creating a positive and engaging learning environment and encouraging student growth. They make a significant contribution to the development and delivery of high-quality education within their department and/or faculty. 

Examples 

• Has contributed to the development of GTAs, professional and technical services and/or early-career colleagues
• Has taken student-centred and inclusive approaches to the design, support and delivery of teaching

Open to: Academics & Professional Services
Open to: Individuals & Teams

This award recognises an individual or team from a technical services provision who has made a significant contribution to teaching within the faculty.  

This could include colleagues from lab services, technology-enhanced learning teams, and digital education colleagues.  

Examples 

• Has been available to students in a lab or practical setting and patient in demonstrating or explaining how equipment and techniques are made to work most effectively.  
• Has ensured consistency in the build and design of KEATS pages within the programme/faculty/department so that students feel confident in quickly finding the information they need. 

Open to: Academics & Professional Services
Open to: Individuals 

This award recognises an individual who demonstrates a values-based commitment to inclusive education and who creates or supports a learning environment in which all students irrespective of background are welcomed, valued, supported and challenged. This award celebrates individuals who embrace the diversity of the student population, are adaptable to their needs and support other educators to enact inclusiveteaching and learning practices.

Examples 

• Has taken time to understand their students interests, prior educational experience and preferences and adapting flexibly to them.
• Has shared best inclusive practice in institution-wide forums, or collaborated with others to advance inclusive education initiatives across King’s.
• Has been an active member of faculty/directorate EDI committees and leads or supports inclusive curriculum, teaching and learning or assessment initiatives.
• Has connected with relevant stakeholders across their faculty/directorate/the institution to advocate for underrepresented students to improve their experience and to share learning.

Open to: Academics & Professional Services
Open to: Individuals 

This award recognises an individual whose practice is not always recognised in an explicit way and whose efforts do not necessarily have wider visibility but their input in invaluable to the student learning and the teaching team. 

Examples 

• Has consistently offered practical support and solutions when emergencies arise. 
• Has consistently demonstrated exceptional commitment and impact in their role to colleagues and/or students.
• Has responded to colleague and student needs in a pragmatic and effective manner.

Open to: Academics 
Open to: Individuals 

This award recognises an individual who worked as a GTA and demonstrated quality support and provision to the student body, under the supervision of academic staff. The fluidity of the GTA role means that their contribution to students’ skills development and learning experience more broadly may be evident in seminars, tutorials, lab sessions, or other small group work scenarios. The GTA should exhibit continued growth in their own studies, whilst simultaneously establishing a professional practice that reflects the collaborative, innovative, and culturally engaged vision of King’s.

Examples 

• Has offered innovative pedagogic approaches to engaging students in learning within taught sessions in ways that support them to widen their perspectives and understanding, and co-construct meaning with peers. This could be through the inclusion of technology, interactive tasks, role-play, or storytelling, for example.

Open to: Academics & Professional Services
Open to: Teams

This award recognises a team who has made significant contribution to the enhancement of the student experience. This could be through community-building initiatives, developing belonging and identity for King’s students, creating dynamic and study-specific opportunities for students, and shaping a positive environment on campus

Examples 

• Has developed a well-rounded, inclusive, community-focused events calendar.

• Has implemented a bespoke student support project for a minority student group.

• Has supported student societies in attracting external sponsorship and/or industry involvement.

• Has integrated and invited career/professional representation as part of the programme of study.

• Has created a student communication channel that provides timely and important guidance for students at key points of their academic journey.

Open to: Academics & Professional Services
Open to: Teams

This award recognises a team who makes a real difference when students face personal, academic, wellbeing, or pastoral challenges during their time at King’s.

Examples 

• Has identified students at risk of disengagement, enabling early interventions from academics and wider student support services (e.g. programme administration teams).

• Has provided strong pastoral, and/or welfare support that helps students navigate difficulties and succeed.

• Has advised students on their academic path effectively, tackling each phase of their university experience with greater confidence and clarity.

• Has simplified processes for students with ongoing monitoring and adjustment to ensure continued success.

Open to: Academics & Professional Services
Open to: Individuals & Teams

This award recognises an individual or team whose teaching and/or support helps students understand how their learning connects to sustainability and equips them to apply that knowledge in a complex world.

Examples 

• Has guided students through making sense of problems and working out what a good response could be.

• Has created new relationships that enable students to grasp sustainability in the world beyond academia.

• Has looked after communities and networks to share Education for Sustainability practice.

• Has helped educators develop themselves for this kind of education.

• Has negotiated curriculum change through departmental or institutional committees.

• Has developed ways to practise Educational for Sustainability with positivity and hope.

Open to: Academics
Open to: Individuals

This award recognises an individual who demonstrates a strong commitment to enacting the principles of TASK (Transforming Assessment for Students at King’s). It celebrates those who have designed meaningful formative learning opportunities; engaging, authentic assessments; and approaches to feedback which equip students for academic success.

Examples 

• Has embedded and evaluated optionality within a module assessment, providing students with a menu of assessment modes they can choose from, each of which allows students to demonstrate they have met the learning outcomes.

• Has developed an effective formative peer-feedback activity which better equips students to self-assess their work before submission.

• Has created an authentic assessment activity in which students demonstrate the learning outcomes by engaging in role-play and/or responding to real-world scenarios.

Open to: Academics & Professional Services
Open to: Individuals 

This award recognises an individual who demonstrates a strong commitment to enhancing students’ learning experiences outside the traditional classroom environment. It might celebrate those who provide meaningful co-curricular and extra-curricular opportunities that support students’ personal, academic, and professional development. It could also highlight contributions that help students make connections between their academic studies and the wider world.

Examples 

• Has initiated staff–student partnerships within King’s or led programmes in collaboration with external organisations, where students work in teams to solve real-world challenges.

• Has developed experiences that enable students to apply their academic knowledge in professional contexts, develop key employability skills such as teamwork, communication, and problem-solving, and gain valuable exposure to sectors relevant to their future careers.

Open to: Academics & Professional Services
Open to: Individuals & Teams

This award will recognise an individual or team who took an innovative approach to designing effective learning environments and/or delivering creative and inspirational teaching using AI.

Examples

• An academic team has created a virtual assistant to support student learning by acting as a simulation of discipline-specific interactions.
• A learning designer has built an online course augmented with AI avatar hosted videos and AI augmented interactive content
• A PhD supervisor, always adhering to data security protocols, has managed to improve supervision meeting record keeping in terms of depth, detail, precision and required action by employing a combination of AI tools (transcription, synthesis, content analysis and record generation).
• An academic team, in partnership with students, has created a platform where students can generate practices questions and flashcards based on their course notes.

After 23 years, the King’s Education Awards are being refreshed to better reflect the scale and diversity of education at King’s. With almost 9,000 staff shaping the learning experience, the new awards will give greater recognition to the breadth of excellence and innovation across the King’s community. Most significantly, colleagues within faculties now have an opportunity to nominate their peers for an award.

A working group was established to consult on the restructuring of the King’s Education Awards. The working group comprised representatives from key stakeholders and disciplines across the University, including colleagues involved in different areas of the student provision, professional services staff, and academic colleagues including Vice Deans (Education). The working group was facilitated and chaired by King's Academy.

The working group developed a paper that was submitted to the Education Executive and the College Education Committee. Both committees have representatives from every faculty in the University.

The paper was approved by both committees.

The King’s Education Awards will now have two award streams:

Colleagues’ Choice (Staff-nominated awards): these nominations will be managed locally by each faculty. The nominations process will involve staff nominating their peers for awards. Each faculty will determine the faculty winner in each category. These winners will then form the shortlist for the University-wide awards, and the eventual winner will be chosen by a panel of staff and students.

Students’ Voice (Student-nominated awards): these awards are shaped entirely by students. Students have designed all the categories and criteria, and they will lead the judging process - from shortlisting nominees to selecting the final winners. The nomination process will involve students nominating staff. More information on these awards can be found here.

No. Once all nominations have been reviewed, if the faculty believes there is not a suitable candidate for a specific category, then they do not need to provide one.

12 January – 27 February 2026

The student-nominated awards, Students’ Voice, are shaped entirely by students with support and facilitation from King’s Academy as partners. They will follow the same timeline, with nominations open in January and winners announced at the celebration event in June. Students have designed all the categories and criteria, and they will lead the judging process - from shortlisting nominees to selecting the final winners. More information on these awards can be found on the links below.

The King’s Education Awards ceremony takes place on June 18 2026. All the shortlisted nominees for the awards (i.e. the faculty winners for each category) will be automatically invited.

The shortlisted nominees for the Students’ Voice stream will also be invited.

The winners for both streams will be announced during the event.

Each faculty will have their own nomination form that will be circulated to faculty colleagues. Once the nomination period begins, the link to the faculty nomination forms will be shared on this page.

It is not necessary to meet every criterion, but nominated colleagues must meet at least one of the criteria for the award category. We recognise that individual roles at King’s vary widely, so some criteria may be more relevant than others depending on the colleague's role in supporting education

The criteria are indicative of the types of activities that we would expect to see in the categories and will be considered when nominations are shortlisted, and the winners are selected.

In previous years, all nominees have received a King’s Education Awards mug. Going forward, in support of our commitment to sustainability, we’ll be celebrating your achievement in new ways. Colleague's shortlisted for the University King's Education Awards will receive a digital certificate and an email signature asset