VC Award Winners 2023

The VC Awards recognise outstanding individual and team achievements at Bath Spa. Here some of this year's award-winners reflect on their win.

Staff and students from across the Bath Spa community recently gathered to celebrate the year’s achievements at the Vice-Chancellor’s (VC) Awards. 

In partnership with the Students' Union, the VC Awards aim to recognise outstanding individual and team achievements at our University.
This annual celebration recognises the outstanding contributions made by teams and individuals across the University with certificates, prizes and University-wide applause, and the ceremony was live streamed for online viewers.
The awards were presented by Vice-Chancellor Professor Sue Rigby and Students' Union President Marianne Evans.

Full list of VC Award Winners

• Colleague of the Year (Academic) - Mohammad Hbubati
• Colleague of the Year (Professional Services inc. SU) - Amie Stroud
• Manager of the Year (Academic) - Sarah Wilton-Rhead
• Manager of the Year (Professional Services inc. SU) -Josh Gulrajani

"I was very honoured to be awarded ‘Manager of the Year’ at the VC Awards 2023. As someone who puts my absolute all into my team, which I develop and nurture as I believe their continued success is my entire legacy, this means so much to me. I am grateful to be recognised by those who nominated me in such an amazing way."

"I had such a lovely time attending the VC Awards as a finalist for the Colleague of the Year Award (Professional Services). The nominations from colleagues were really thoughtful and it was lovely to have even been shortlisted, so I was very pleasantly surprised when my name was unexpectedly called as the winner! The event was such a fantastic celebration of the work and achievements of staff and students at Bath Spa."

• Social Impact - Ruby Sant
• Student Champion of the Year - Neetu Karwal

"Thank you so much to those who nominated for me and to the rest of the nominees. It is truly an honour to win this award and a privilege to work at Bath Spa and Bath Spa’s Student Union!"

• Back To Bath Spa Alumni Award - Matthew Emeny
• Academic Impact - Paul Gamble

"I was thrilled to learn that my wonderful fellow students and inspiring tutors had nominated me for the VC Academic Impact Award. To sit beside other nominees at the awards ceremony was a great honour. I felt great pride in representing the MA Travel & Nature Writing community, a group of people who look after each other to an extent that I've not experienced before. I treasure the memories of this unique course and the opportunities it continues to give. I'm very lucky to have found myself guided by academics who want you to scale the heights and encourage you to make a difference. Anything I've contributed was built on their example."

• Academic Impact - Bethany Gee
• Impact on Student Life - Ash Manganaro
• Community Impact - Amber Daw & Howl Baer (Bath Disability Network)

"We would've never imagined winning without the support and opportunities everyone has given us over this year. We're so incredibly proud of winning the Community Impact award and thank those who wrote such lovely and heartwarming nominations as well. Expect even more from us next academic year..."
Thank you!"

• Community Impact - Bath Law Clinic student team
• Team of the Year (student) - Bath Spa Rapids
• Lecturer of the Year - Lucy Sweetman

"Winning Lecturer of the Year for the second time was quite a shock. I'm so grateful to my students for nominating me and very moved by it. They're a lovely bunch of interesting, funny and engaging people and I always enjoy being in a classroom with them." 

• Supervisor of the Year - Wendy Geens
• Outstanding Support - Stephanie Richardson
• Team of the Year (Academic) - Bath Business School (including Bath Spa London)

"We are delighted to have won the category of Academic Team of the Year for Bath Business School (BBS) and have our contribution recognised.  The team has responded brilliantly to many opportunities to diversify and increase the university's income through their flexibility and hard work.  Key examples include increasing our student numbers by nearly 5,000 through our partnerships, for instance, working with a partner to design and deliver a degree in Construction Management to nearly 2,000 students across five locations in the UK reaching a large number of non-traditional students.  We have also increased our student numbers in our established provision in Bath (particularly in Law and in our Postgraduate programmes) and designed new degree programmes to start this September, and importantly we have had our first successful REF submission."

• Team of the Year - (Professional Services inc SU) Research & Enterprise

"We were delighted to be jointly awarded the team of the year! This is an honour which recognised all of the hard work which our team has put in to deliver an outstanding REF2021 result and to develop a vibrant culture in research and enterprise in our University, which has real impact regionally, nationally, and internationally."

• Team of the Year - (Professional Services inc SU) Student Experience - Careers & Employability

"It's fantastic that the Careers and Employability team have been recognised with a VC award win. Every staff member in the service works hard to support students in their career development, throughout their whole university journey and beyond, and this award really recognises their collaboration, commitment and growth over the last year."

• Teaching Innovation - Research Methods II a Level 5 module in Psychology and Forensic Psychology
• Care Dog of the Year - Georgie
• Care Dog of the Year - Sid

“Thanks for all the cuddles!”

• Unsung Star of Bath Spa (Academic) - Kerry Irvine
• Unsung Star of Bath Spa (Professional Services inc. SU) - Di Starling
• Student of The Year - Lauren Stone

“I am absolutely thrilled to be the 2023 winner of this award, thankyou to my Heads of School who chose me. This award is a lovely way to celebrate the end of my fantastic four years here at Bath Spa University.”

• Student of The Year - Bo Neville
• Student of The Year - Alexandra Slomka-Moore
• Student of The Year - Amber Daw
• Student of The Year - Heidi Mbemap

"I felt really touched to have been nominated for this award as I started off the academic year with big apprehensions concerning my ability to do a degree course, let alone do well in it! But this achievement is also completely linked to the friendships I have made on my course and the help and support I have had from my peers and lectures. I know that all of us on the Wildlife Conservation course have worked really hard and I wish the award could be shared. Overall, this reinforced how grateful I feel for all of the conditions that have brought me to university."

• Student of The Year - Sapphire Henriksen
• Student of The Year - Wilfred Amaechi Ogugua
• Student of The Year - Thomas Brown

"I was very humbled to receive this award and would like to thank those who nominated me for it. This achievement is a proud reminder for me that hard work really does pay off."

• Academic Achievement - Kirsty Soper
• Academic Achievement - Abi Taylor
• Academic Achievement - Holly Morris

"Winning the Academic Achievement award is the best way I could finish my time at Bath Spa. I want to thank Jason, Neil and the entire publishing team for being my biggest cheerleaders throughout my degree. I would not be a student worthy of this award without their encouragement and support."

• Academic Achievement - Thomas Carswell
• Academic Achievement - Mia Lewis
• Academic Achievement - Joe Warne
• Academic Achievement - Rumyana Nedeva
• Academic Achievement - Mollie Biddlecombe