Previous Winners

Amy volunteered over 1,300 hours in 2020 in the front-line of the Covid response. This included a month supporting patients in London's Nightingale Hospital in the first wave of the pandemic. Following this she volunteered in hospital A&E departments last summer doing four 12-hour shifts a week, alongside completing training for her Emergency Ambulance Crew qualification with St John Ambulance when she responded to 999 calls in London, Isle of Wight, Bristol and Reading. By mid-February she had already volunteered over 300 hours in 2021 and aimed to complete over 1,500 hours in total this year. This has been based at St James' Vaccination Centre in Portsmouth, where she has been doing three 12-hour shifts each week as a Unit Manager of the University of Portsmouth St John Ambulance Unit. In this role she manages around 20 volunteers, helping them with their training as well as organising and planning events and ensuring volunteer welfare.

Following the murder of George Floyd and the University's pledge last June to make a step change in efforts to end racism, a conference for our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and alumni was envisioned by Marcella Kirby. Sharing her vision with Senior Leaders, funding was secured to enable it to happen. With the dedicated support of colleagues volunteering from our community, the team came together and delivered a truly exceptional conference to over 180 Black, Asian and Minority Ethinic staff, alumni and allies including keynote speakers Karen Blackett OBE, University of Portsmouth Chancellor, alumna, WPP UK Country Manager and the Government’s Race Equality Business Champion; Asif Sadiq MBE, Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Adidas; and Nira Chamberlain PhD, alumnus and President of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.

Photo from left to right: Emilie Smith, Graham Galbraith and Marcella Kirby.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit it quickly became clear that testing would be a key tool in reopening our campus and keeping our staff, students and the wider community as safe as possible. The team has played a vital role in the safe reopening of campus, carrying out over 32,000 tests to provide accurate infection data and in combating the narrative that university students were a primary cause for Covid-19 spread.

Photo from left to right: Georgina Barker-Woodward, Amanda Ward, Graham Galbraith and Joe Shoebridge.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the team at the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (ICG) leveraged their expertise in statistics, computing, and data analysis, to help the university. The team built a tailor-made data management system to critically underpin our testing system. The team also crucially enabled new research efforts to better understand the spread of the virus, for instance through detailed studies of coughs and sneezes in clinical environments. Their rapid response, often under extreme time pressure, and keen engagement to solve other groups' technical challenges is an outstanding model for how well cross-departmental collaborations can work to address major challenges, especially during a public emergency.

Photo from left to right: Chris Pattison, Jascha Schewtschenko and Coleman Krawczyk.

The PSE team are responsible for the Pre-Sessional English courses for international students wishing to develop their English Language skills to meet their degree's entry criteria. In March 2020, responding to the global pandemic and the potential impact on international students planning to undertake their studies in the UK, the team developed an institutional test to assess students' English Language skills for entry onto university courses due to the closure of English Language test centres which would in normal circumstances determine students’ eligibility. The team also completely redeveloped the campus-based Pre-Sessional English programme into a pure distance learning course in just 10 weeks, using a range of highly innovative technologies which was new to the institution. If they had not done so we would not have met our international student recruitment targets.

Photo from left to right: Andrew McColl-McWha, Graham Galbraith and Helen Ringrow.

In collaboration with university and hospital research staff, Sam Robson established a next-generation sequencing centre for Covid-19. Using university equipment, hospital labs and a lot of good will, testing began on all SARS-CoV-2 positive samples collected at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth to identify variants and transmission chains in the local area. Over 15,000 genomes have been processed, with samples being sent from all over the South East of England. Sam has worked tirelessly to ensure rapid turnaround of results and provided the critical information required by infection control teams at local hospitals, as well as providing essential data on variants which has been used by policy makers to inform transmission control decisions.

The Study Buddy Club was established during the third lockdown in February 2021 to support University of Portsmouth staff who had home education responsibilities during school closures. The project was staffed by University students who provided an online club for children between the ages of 7 and 11 to help staff with home schooling. The club provided teaching placement opportunities for students who would have normally been based in schools. It also gave the children an opportunity to mix with other children in an online environment. Staff members whose children attended the online club provided very positive feedback about their children’s experience. One child said: “I wish Study Buddy Club lasted forever!”

Photo from left to right: Alexander Sabine, Catherine Carroll-Meehan, Graham Galbraith, Jodie Pinnell and Karolina Szczepaniak.

A special Award called the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Citizenship was also awarded to one of our students, Jessica Ware, in recognition of her remarkable courage and for being an outstanding representative of our students.

Last year, Jessica received a Vice-Chancellor’s Commendation for helping to save the life of a fellow flatmate with meningitis. Her quick actions made the difference between her friend making a recovery or losing his life to the infection.

More recently, Jessica intervened to control the bleeding of a member of the public whilst waiting for the emergency services to arrive and take over. Jessica has encountered two incredibly traumatic situations which she faced with bravery and determination to help those in need.

Wendy showed true leadership and determination in implementing a process for welfare packages for students. An estimated 500 international students were due to arrive into halls and the community on the weekend of 12-13 September 2020. These students were required (due to Covid) to immediately quarantine so had no chance to shop in advance. Wendy arranged hot food from a local restaurant and became the sole point of contact for those managing the phones that weekend. Wendy went to great lengths across that entire period to ensure no student went without a suitably culturally appropriate meal.

Mohammad organised the biggest student social entrepreneurship competition to take place at the University. He was selected as a Campus Director to host the Hult Prize, a global program powered by the United Nations, in our University. Over 103 students participated, and came up with profitable business ideas that contribute to solving a climate change issue. They were trained in multiple workshops by Google and the winning team represented Portsmouth in the semi-finals in London.

Mohammad is also the Vice-President of the Entrepreneurs Society in which he continuously works with our students to come up with business ideas and turn them into effective profitable startups while they are studying.

Nic has devoted his career to engaging young people with physics, particularly those with visual impairments. Since 2016 he has led the award-winning Tactile Universe project, taking research from the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation and making it accessible to people with vision impairments.

As a blind astronomer himself, he is an inspiring and relatable role model for the children he works with. Nic has gone above and beyond to ensure the success of the Tactile Universe, taking over the management of a large public engagement grant while a colleague was on maternity leave. He has travelled the country training others to use the Tactile Universe resources, and established himself as a leading authority in accessible physics outreach.

Louisa has transformed a pre-existing programme for students of accounting to work with local charities. Through energy, creativity and doggedness she has more than doubled the number of students involved and tripled the number of charities. At the same time, she has created accounting and tax advisory clinics for individuals, small businesses and entrepreneurs, all delivered by students. These initiatives have been developed in liaison with Portsmouth City Council and take place at HIVE Portsmouth.

This initiative fits very well with the University’s values and strategic objectives. Not least in providing students with genuinely meaningful life-changing experiences that considerably enhance their employability skills by practising communication and teamwork, as well as helping students develop a professional demeanour in a work environment.

In a world with ongoing concern about sustainability and energy efficiency, we’re lucky to have students like Vikas who are creating, sharing and applying knowledge to make a difference to society. Throughout his tenure, Vikas has led the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) to some very successful outcomes.

Winning SPE Best Performing Student Chapter and the Students’ Union Outstanding Society Achievement of the year, are both recognition for his energy and enthusiasm for ensuring his fellow classmates have opportunities to engage with their subject area outside of the classroom. Having lived in India, Germany and here in the UK he has brought these lived experiences to Portsmouth and shared them through collaborating with staff and students across the institution.

Anna has been an integral part in the University’s engagement with Hampshire Constabulary to tackle students’ experiences of hate crime, discrimination and intolerance. Anna has led the way in this piece of work which has resulted in the university signing up to become a Third Party Reporting Centre for hate crime.

This work has been pushed by Anna’s inspirational passion to support international students and address issues they may face, refusing to turn a blind eye to the harms some students experience. Anna’s initiative in this area has resulted in training being provided for the office even before this became part of a wider university scheme, purely motivated by a commitment to improving the experiences of students.

CCI TV is an important part of the University's civic engagement. Led for many years by Charlie Watts, CCI TV's engagements include filming graduations, the city's annual Remembrance ceremony and one-off events including the general election in December 2019. At the heart of the project is a fantastic partnership between the academic and technical teams, who together support our students to work in real-world, real-time live and recorded broadcast events.

The students’ achievements are of the highest possible standard and they consistently represent the Faculty and the University at its very best. This can be seen each Saturday at Fratton Park where, trained and supported by the CCI TV team, our students undertake the live screen filming of all Portsmouth Football Club matches.

The 2019/20 season has been an excellent one. The 1st team have consistently been our top performing sports team, and our Women’s 2nd team, have recently gone a season unbeaten and have been promoted to 2A, regularly playing against 1st teams of other universities and holding their own. They also developed their first ever competitive Women's Futsal team.

Off the pitch, these ladies are constantly breaking barriers through volunteering: making lunches for the homeless, walking rescue dogs with the RSPCA, packing shoeboxes for children with the Samaritans, and leading activity sessions at the local Regency care home. Their championing of equality in sport was also key in establishing a Women's Football side in the annual Staff vs Students Charity Match.

The University’s Cheerleading Club, Portsmouth Phoenix, has delivered the Cheer Off programme with the Department of Sport and Recreation for eight years. This year they’ve engaged with 17 Portsmouth schools. Cheer Coaches thrive as positive female role models, demonstrating the benefits of physical activity to young women over a 10-week programme, culminating in a showcase event where pupils perform their new skills to peers and family. Students involved also benefit from the career enhancing experience through a nationally recognised qualification and in-house training.

Will is a dedicated student who has made meaningful contributions to tackle hate crime. Through his own initiative, he is involved in two Hampshire Constabulary groups and is now an intern for the Cross Government Hate Crime Programme, working on a database of hate crime symbols that can be used by police forces. Will’s ambition is to join the police, before working in international crime investigation to fight human trafficking, genocide and crimes against humanity.

Beatriz established and runs the Autism Centre for Research on Employment, working with four local authorities with funds from the Department of Health. The centre has helped around 75 adults with autism find jobs through a range of support services, including an innovative assessment tool that provides employers with extensive information about individual strengths and weaknesses, and adjustment needs. This has led to interest across Europe including recognition in the Department of Health’s Autism Adult Strategy.

Every year in the UK there are around 60,000 cardiac arrests and 270 children die at school due to heart attacks. Using the University’s simulation ambulance, staff and students worked with the NHS to deliver compulsory CPR training to 125 school children across the Isle of Wight. The positive response received from the schools and local media demonstrated that the University had successfully brought its values and expertise into a local community. A second phase of training will be delivered to more schools in Portsmouth and on the Isle of Wight.

The ‘Get Active Stay Active’ programme was funded by Sport England over a three year period, targeted at traditionally hard to reach groups. More than 40,000 sessions were delivered to 3,665 different students, including 40% from a black and minority ethnic background. The key to success was peer to peer delivery with 98 students contributing over 4,700 voluntary hours per year. Staff were also able to tackle psychological barriers by adapting sessions to avoid stress, and focusing on fun and friendships. Sport England recognised the project as outstanding and the University has sustained it permanently.

Jennifer is an astrophysicist and science communicator extraordinaire. She has transformed schools and public engagement from ad hoc responses to a programme of coordinated events in target schools. She puts Portsmouth on the map with the Stargazing Live events, from the original BBC version to the now annual event in Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Jennifer’s a regular media presence and was also instrumental in bringing astronaut Tim Peake to Portsmouth Guildhall to meet and inspire hundreds of local school children.

John’s collaboration with Southern Water to form the Innovation Hub at the Environmental Technology Field Station in Petersfield, has revitalised the facility into a thriving research station to pilot technologies to dispose wastewater efficiently, safely and cleanly. John was provided with £150,000 to upgrade the existing, but run down, field station with an expected return on investment of £475,000 over five years. Halfway into the project, and that return has already been exceeded by a further 44% to help solve real-world problems.

The unit provides the opportunity for students to give free quality legal advice to the local community through the General Legal Advice Clinic and Small Claims Clinic. Set up in 2013, the programme has grown to include 28 students with a further 44 trained to join in September. With staff support, the students ran five sessions each week this year to deliver advice to over 200 members of the public, providing students with essential skills and helping the not for profit sector in Portsmouth fill the gap following legal aid reforms.

The Creative Volunteers are a team of students who deliver creative workshops to schools and colleges across Portsmouth, offering an insight into the University and the creative industries to raise aspirations. Melanie started the project seven years ago with a team of 16 students visiting one local school, dedicating seven hours to work with 75 pupils. Since then the project has grown significantly. From September 2017 to January 2018, 65 students visited seven schools, working with 268 pupils across 96 hours.

Sandra Kerr redefines the role of a receptionist; she is an advisor, a guide, a listener, a consultant, a supporter, an administrator and a helper – all in one. Everyone in St George’s Building speaks very highly of Sandra, for her outstanding administrative skills and her beaming positivity and passion for her role. Examples of her good work include greeting visitors tired after their long journey with a genuine smile and calm and friendly voice, to helping an international student unfamiliar with the NHS book a hospital appointment.

Sarah Blackmore is a netball enthusiast and a highly academic individual. As president of the University’s netball club she developed the club to such a high standard that it was shortlisted for Hampshire and Isle of Wight’s Club of the Year Award and it was awarded the University’s Athletic Union’s Club of the Year Award. Sarah became the joint head coach of the netball club and was awarded Hampshire Coach of the Year, guiding University teams to promotion, as well as coaching at four different clubs and schools.

Students worked with staff to create six original performance pieces, based on Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales which were revised to include contemporary events. They took the performances out to local schools to enhance their curriculum, enabling 500 children to experience live theatre – some of them for the very first time. The project also helped staff and students give something back to the community, whilst enhancing the students’ employability skills by working as autonomous theatre companies.

‘What We Wear Is Who We Are’ was a collaborative project with the College of Fashion at Wuhan Textile University in China. It brought students together for two weeks in Portsmouth and two weeks in Wuhan to co-design garments for a fashion collection inspired by cultural distinctiveness. Sue’s project exemplified the University’s values of global engagement. The project has been used by the British Council as a case study across the world, receiving significant press coverage in China and raising the University’s profile.

Vincent has made outstanding contributions to the student experience, in particular, by integrating his ‘WhatsUp’ mobile app into the University’s wellbeing services. ‘WhatsUp’ is a secure, confidential app which provides daily tools to promote positive mental health, and instantly support those students that need help. The app has been downloaded by hundreds of students, providing them with safe and secure access to vital services. The former professional footballer is now completing his masters and continues in his role as a student ambassador promoting the University on open days.