The hard work of academics and support staff in the School of Business, Management and Economics (BMEc) has been recognised with the announcement that nine of 41 winners of the University’s annual Excellence in Teaching Awards work within the School.

The awards, which invite nominations by students and staff from across the University in start of each spring term, celebrate outstanding achievement in teaching and support.

Head of School Prof Steven McGuire said:

“It is with great pleasure that I congratulate those in BMEc honoured by these awards. This much-deserved recognition of their hard work clearly reflects the positive experience of our students at all levels, both in terms of their teaching and the support they’ve received in enhancing their studies with professional placements – I’d like to extend my thanks on behalf of the School to everyone involved”

The School’s Director of Teaching and Learning Dr Julie Litchfield – who as Chair of the School Teaching and Learning Committee helps determine the winners – commented on the achievements of each recipient:

Outstanding or Innovative Undergraduate Teaching

• Dr Norifumi Kawai, Lecturer in International Business (Department of Business and Management)
  “Norifumi is recognised for excellence in teaching, particularly on internationalisation. Students report that they feel they are being prepared to be leaders in the international business environment, not just to pass exams. Norifumi’s careful and reflective approach to teaching, evidenced in student feedback, demonstrates a strong understanding of how students from different backgrounds have different approaches and experiences of learning.”
• Dr Dimitra Petropoulou, Lecturer in Economics (Department of Economics)
  “Dimitra receives excellent feedback from both students and staff on her teaching and she is specially praised for her interactive teaching style. She is a keen innovator with technology, making full use of clickers, quizzes and online games in and out of the classroom, and she was recently awarded a TEL (Technology-Enanced Learning) grant to further this innovation.”
• Boidurjo (Rick) Mukhopadhyay, Associate Tutor (Department of Business and Management)
  “Rick is highly regarded by the students he teaches across a range of modules in BMEc. He makes great efforts to encourage active learning in the classroom, thinking about in-class strategies that will work for different modules and in particular using group tasks to build co-operation and confidence.”

Outstanding or Innovative Postgraduate Teaching

• Dr Nikolaos Papanikolaou, Lecturer in Banking and Finance (Department of Business and Management)
  “Nikolaos receives wonderful comments and testimonies from MSc students. Particularly notable are his efforts to inspire students undertaking research. This, from a recent student, says it all: ‘What was a daunting prospect at start certainly transformed into a richly rewarding experience courtesy of your astute and hands-on supervision of the process’.”
• Dr Josh Siepel, Lecturer in Management (SPRU – Science Policy Research Unit)
  “Josh receives consistently high praise from students and colleagues for his engaging, thoughtful andstimulating style of teaching. He deserves special recognition for his efforts to adapt his teaching approach to changing scale and diversity and has had great success in eliciting active participation by international students.”
• Malgorzata (Gosia) Sulimierska, Teaching Fellow in Banking (Department of Business and Management)
  “Gosia receives extremely positive feedback from students on MSc Banking and Finance and many comment on her support to them in tackling challenging new concepts and techniques. She should be congratulated on her innovative use of technology in teaching, particular social media.”
• Dr Mike Osborne, Lecturer in Accounting and Finance (Department of Business and Management)
  “Mike brings a wealth of industry experience to his teaching. From a recent PoT “Content was complex but rendered highly accessible, even enjoyable, and certainly very relevant to the world of finance.’ He has a very carefully thought out approach to his teaching, aiming to inject enthusiasm for learning among his students and clearly succeeding.”

Oustanding or Innovative Assessment and Feedback

• Pedro Rosa Dias, Lecturer in Economics (Department of Economics)
  “Students praise Pedro warmly for demystifying economics (it is not easy to teach economics to non-economists) and statistics but Pedro has been recognised for his innovative work on assessment and feedback. Across all his modules, Pedro has a carefully designed strategy to give students feedback on their progress, using technology in the classroom, rapid feedback quizzes on SyD and self-diagnosis tools.”

Outstanding Professional Services Support for the Learning Experience of Students

• BMEc Employer Engagement Team – Ian Pierson, Marni McArthur and Jo Budd (Professional Services)
  “Our Employer Engagement Team has pioneered the professional placement year at Sussex and has helped many of our own students secure placements and graduate employment. Their experience in identifying opportunities, working with employers, developing protocols and supporting faculty and students has been welcomed by other schools as they develop their own placement year.”

  Marni McArthur, Placements Co-ordinator, added:

  “We are immensely proud of receiving this award and all thoroughly enjoy supporting the largest placement cohort within the University.

  “Our work is particularly rewarding because of the relationships we have fostered with excellent colleagues across campus, employers and (of course) enthusiastic and motivated BMEc placement students.”

Prof Clare Mackie, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning), said: “I am delighted that these awards allow us to celebrate teaching and learning at Sussex, which established a reputation for teaching and learning in the 1960s when it broke the mould to ‘redraw the map of learning’ – since then delivering innovative teaching, learning and student support.

“With the current pace of life, however, we often forget to reflect and celebrate the high-quality achievement in these areas.

“The University’s Excellence in Teaching Awards give us a chance to do this. These awards are richly deserved and transform the future of our students.”

Winners will receive their certificates at the next Teaching and Learning Conference.