King’s Education Awards: Students’ Voice

Formal Name: Award for excellence in teaching and learning

This award recognises a member of staff who consistently demonstrates excellence across all aspects of teaching. They inspire learning, encourage you to engage with your subject in meaningful ways, build community, and make a lasting impression on your experience education at King’s.

Criteria for nomination:

• Clear, engaging, inclusive and accessible teaching
• Built community or enhanced belonging
• Encouraged students to grow, participate, and feel confident in their learning
• Demonstrated a distinctive or lasting impact through their teaching style, methods, or approach
• Had a lasting, positive impact on student academic journeys

For example:

• Did you have a lecturer whose clarity, empathy or innovative approach made their module or learning environment impactful and unforgettable?
• Is there an educator whose teaching you think will still be influential and meaningful for you in 20 years?

Formal Name: Award for lasting impact on students’ academic experience

This award recognises someone whose long-term support helped you succeed. This is the person you'd thank in your graduation speech.

Criteria for nomination:

• Continuous support of students through their academic journey through moments of challenge
• Helped students succeed academically or personally
• Left a lasting mark on students’ time at King's

For example:

• Did you have a personal tutor who supported you through illness or setbacks and made sure you stayed on track to finish your degree?
• Did you have an academic skills tutor who helped you prepare for academic presentations?

Formal Name: Award for effective assessment and feedback

This award recognises someone who provided clear guidance for their assessments, making expectations clear and achievable. They also provide valuable and actionable feedback so that students can apply it to their next assessment. Students feel confident and supported.

Criteria for nomination:

• Provided clear guidance that helped students complete their coursework
• Offered clear explanations and actionable feedback
• Consistently applied feedback practices that are integral to supporting student development and learning

For example:

• Did you have a lecturer who broke down the assessment step-by-step, answered follow-up questions with patience, and gave constructive and useful feedback?
• Did you have a GTA who clarified tricky concepts in their seminars and helped increase your confidence when approaching the assessment?

Formal Name: Award for engaging and innovative teaching

This award recognises someone whose teaching made the early starts worth it. They turned lectures, labs, workshops or seminars into engaging and interactive sessions that you wanted to show up for, no matter the time of day.

Criteria for nomination:

• Developed innovative approaches to teaching, creating spaces where students could engage with their subject matter in meaningful ways, bringing lessons to life
• Made complex and hard-to-digest topics more easily understood
• Identified and encouraged participation from all students

For example:

• Did you have a lab instructor who used demos and live problem-solving to make the 9am session the best one?
• Did you have a seminar lead who found creative ways to include each student in the discussion?

Formal Name: Award for building belonging and connection

This award recognises someone who made your class, cohort, or community feel like a place where you truly belonged. They brought students together, fostered inclusion and accessibility, and helped connect your academic experience to the world beyond King’s.

Criteria for nomination:

• Brought people together or created a strong sense of community
• Helped you feel included or supported
• Broke down barriers to access or participation
• Connected your learning to real-world issues, industry trends, or professional practice
• Provided opportunities for students to make industry connections and develop employability skills for success upon graduation

For example:

• Did you have a student engagement officer in your course of study or programme helped make you feel part of the King’s community by creating opportunities and events where you could connect with other students?
• Did you have a Disability Adviser who helped you to navigate and access resources, or supported you with advice and guidance that made a positive difference to your learning experience?

Formal Name: Award for supporting students through hard times

Everyone experiences hardships. This award recognises someone who supported you through those tough experiences, be it pastoral, well-being or academic, and helped you get through to the other side.

Criteria for nomination:

• Provided perspective and calm when it was most needed
• Helped you reflect on and grow from a challenge
• Genuinely cared about your wellbeing

For example:

• Did you have a Wellbeing Adviser who helped you manage your wellbeing needs without shame or pressure and helped ensure you had what you needed to succeed while studying ?
• Did you have a King’s Student Money Mentor who helped manage your finances with clear guidance and top tips?

Formal Name: Award for outstanding teaching support

This award recognises someone who made a massive difference in your learning experience — often behind the scenes.

Criteria for nomination:

• Helped you understand technical or complex content
• Gave you practical advice to learn the nuance of the subject
• Made labs, tutorials, or workshops more manageable and meaningful

For example:

• Did you have a lab technician who helped you through a complex skill in a lab setting?
• Did you have a Study Abroad Tutor who provided support during your year abroad?

Formal Name: Award for mentorship

This award recognises someone who supported you through a variety of challenges outside the classroom; that could be helping you find, thrive in, or recover from a placement, internship, or real-world transition, or it could be helping you navigate and connect to opportunities beyond the classroom during your journey at King’s.

Criteria for nomination:

• Helped you secure or prepare for an experience beyond university
• Provided meaningful support during the experience
• Helped you navigate a challenge or uncertainty

For example:

• Did you have a lecturer who brought students together and linked classroom learning to real-world issues and industry trends?
• Did you have a placement coordinator who found you a backup option after your original offer fell through last-minute?

Formal Name: Award for expanding access to educational experiences

This award recognises someone who has broken down barriers and created opportunities that make the student experience more inclusive, diverse and sustainable. They champion access to resources, networks, and real-world experiences, particularly for students who may face additional barriers, that create lasting impact for current and future King’s students.

Criteria for nomination:

• Created fairer pathways through placements, research, or extracurricular initiatives
• Actively promoted inclusion and accessibility
• Delivered initiatives that have a lasting impact on widening participation
• Supported first-generation, underrepresented, or less-connected students
• Embedded values of inclusivity and social responsibility across King’s

For example:

• Did you have a staff member who has created a network to empower and connect individuals from an underrepresented student community?
• Did you have a lecturer whose teaching is a great example of inclusive practice?

Formal Name: Award for outstanding team collaboration

This award recognises a pair/group of students and staff who have devised and collaborated on a project or initiative that has positively impacted the learning experience.

Criteria for nomination:

• Represented a strong collaboration between staff members and students
• Created something more impactful together than would be possible individually

For example:

• Do you know a team of students and staff who co-designed an initiative for Widening Participation students?
• Did you have a course rep and staff member who worked together to action feedback from students?

The King’s Education Awards: Students’ Voice are an opportunity for students to celebrate staff who make a real difference to their learning and experience at King’s. The awards are designed by students, for students, and the process is supported by King’s Academy.

This year’s awards have been refreshed to recognise a broader range of academic and professional services roles to ensure more contributions to the student experience are celebrated. All categories have been redesigned by students, with support from King's Academy.

This also includes a new staff-nominated stream, ‘Colleagues’ Choice’, that runs parallel to the student-nominated stream, enabling King’s staff to champion their peers. Learn more about King’s Education Awards: Colleagues’ Choice..

The Students’ Voice awards are shaped entirely by students. Students have designed all the categories and criteria, with support from King’s Academy, and they will lead the judging process - from shortlisting nominees to selecting the final winners. Shortlisting groups will review nominations, before a separate student panel makes the final decisions.

Any current King’s student, be that undergraduate, postgraduate taught or postgraduate research.

You can nominate a member of staff via this form. Please note this form won't be available until 12 January 2026 when nominations open.

Staff who teach or support education at King’s (e.g. lecturers, GTAs/demonstrators, technicians, personal tutors, supervisors, professional services staff in education-facing roles

A short story with specifics (what they did; why it mattered; impact on your learning/community). The more detail you provide will help the student shortlisting panel.

No. You can nominate in as many or as few as you like. Quality of the example matters more than quantity.

Yes - some categories are open to teams as well as individuals. The category descriptions will indicate this.

Yes - many categories are open to staff beyond lecturers.

Be specific: what did they do, when, and how did it change your learning, confidence, belonging or opportunities? Evidence of inclusive practice is highly valued. We have created this document to give an example of a good nomination.

Yes - opt in on the form if you’re happy for your words to be shared; many staff find this invaluable.

The student shortlisting groups will review nominations, then a separate student selection panel will agree the winners. Timelines and next steps will be updated on this page.