Students nominate their top tutors for teaching awards

ALMOST 3,000 students at Edinburgh University have nominated their favourite lecturers and tutors to receive a teaching award.

Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA) established the awards last year to highlight and reward those who improve the student experience through excellent teaching, and to argue for more systematic recognition of good teaching practice within the university.

This year, nearly 3,000 students have made nominations, compared with 2,700 last year.

The awards have made a huge impact on the Scottish and UK education sector – the Higher Education Academy and NUS have set up a project to extend teaching awards to other universities through Scotland, while universities throughout the UK have been contacting EUSA to find out how to set up their own awards.

EUSA vice-president of academic affairs, Evan Beswick, said: "The number of nominations last year was astounding, and the fact that we have surpassed this shows that students continue to care about the quality of their teaching and are more engaged in the university's teaching agenda than ever before.

"The Teaching Awards were a great success."