Winning a Guardian University Award can be a transformative experience. We caught up with a few 2018 winners to find out how it felt to take home an award, and what it enabled them to do next.
Widening access and outreach
The Compass Project at Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck, University of London won the widening access and outreach category for a project providing funding and support for 20 asylum seekers to undertake a foundation degree.
“We knew that this was a great project and was addressing a gap, but receiving that recognition outside of Birkbeck just cemented it even further,” says Naureen Abubacker, senior widening access and outreach officer. “It’s raised the profile of the project, which has helped us form partnerships with other universities.”
The project stood out for its focus on asylum seekers. Most mature asylum seekers possess little or no documentation showing their academic readiness and, unlike refugees, are ineligible for student financial support. Even with scholarships, many struggle to access UK universities.
This year, the project has welcomed its second cohort of 18 students to Birkbeck. Abubacker says they are looking for more universities to collaborate with, and she hopes that the Compass Project will grow and become an integral part of the university’s widening access work.
Student experience
The lettings agency at the University of Surrey
When the University of Surrey spotted that its students were travelling long distances to university or living in overpriced, sub-standard accommodation owing to a housing shortage in Guildford, it approached the problem imaginatively.
The university set up an in-house lettings agency to raise the standards of private sector accommodation for students, lobby local politicians on issues relating to student housing, provide practical support and advice for students navigating the private lettings market, and increase the proportion of rooms in Guildford available to rent for Surrey students.
“It’s not only an incredible achievement to be recognised for the delivery of this project but also rewarding to see the positive impact for our students,” says Liani Mannifield, lettings agency manager. “It has also enabled stronger collaboration across property and political arenas.”
The team are hoping to further develop the lettings service to offer higher numbers of private sector accommodation to students. They are also working on educating students on accommodation options through several campaigns, and training landlords on lettings standards.
Research impact
The environmental impact of microplastic at the University of Exeter
Microplastics have been all over the news this year – but not everyone knows that the in-depth studies revealing the devastating impact of microplastic pollution were carried out by the University of Exeter.
The academics focused on the global impact of micro and nanoplastics – small plastic particles less than 1mm in length - which are increasingly contaminating the environment.
“We were delighted to win this award. In some professions, winning prizes and recognition is a given, and there’s lots of publicity and bling. But in science, it’s generally not something that happens,” says Tamara Galloway, who led the team. “It was great to know that people had been taking notice of our research into marine microplastics, and that it had made a difference to people’s ideas and behaviours about plastic pollution in the oceans.”
The team have just received good news on future funding, which means they’ll be working with colleagues from the fields of economics, materials science and behavioural psychology to work out how to stop plastic pollution getting into the oceans in the first place. It’s part of making sure that plastic is reused and recycled, rather than ending up as discarded litter. “Hopefully there might be a happy ending,” says Galloway.