Staff recognised by student-led 'Fantastic Awards'
This year Birmingham Business School students have introduced a new way of recognising both Professional Services and academic staff called the ‘Fantastic Awards’. As part of the scheme, students nominate the staff they feel inspired by; staff that have provided them with the best experience, whom they wish to highlight to others as examples of best practice.
Fantastic Award winners are selected by a panel, with each winner presented with their award certificate by student representatives. The scheme has been hailed as an excellent way to increase student engagement and a really positive way to recognise the great contribution so many of our staff make to the student experience.
Currently running within the Business Management programme, it is hoped that the awards scheme will be rolled out across the School in the near future. The first Fantastic Award recipients are listed below, along with quotes from the students that nominated them.
Dr Tom Coogan
"Tom is dedicated to teaching in a manner that engages students, encourages debate and stimulates learning. There are a variety of statistics, theory, videos and interactive content used throughout lectures that I find interesting. Small seminar learning is effective because of Tom’s ability to ask questions to groups in order to help them think through topics in a way they may not have done. The reading for the lecture is well organised with short chunks being allocated each week. Guidance on assignments has been to a good standard and feedback on these has also been good."
Professor Stan Siebert
"Professor Siebert delivers lectures and seminar classes with an unrivalled level of enthusiasm for the subject and the module in general that I have not seen from any other member of teaching staff whilst I have been at the University. This enthusiasm helps students to engage with the module and it’s content, and Stan’s ability to make everybody laugh in every lecture or class without fail bring the material to life and make me look forward to attending lectures and seminars. Furthermore, Stan provides evidence from the press or journal articles, many of which are his own recent or current publications to back-up the arguments presented in class. Stan encourages students to participate in discussion in lectures which helps us to explore the content more fully.
Another aspect of Stan’s commitment is the effort which he made to learn everybody’s names very quickly and the time he takes out during breaks or before/at the end of lectures to chat to students. This means he is able to address everybody in lectures and classes personally which creates a more relaxed atmosphere and helped to break the ice quickly which has created an atmosphere where discussion is welcomed and valued by students on the module. Furthermore, Stan has put on additional classes to the scheduled seminars to help students understand more complex material and is always willing to chat and go through material at the end of lectures.This module has been one of the most intellectually stimulating and interesting modules I have studied during my time at the university, and a significant factor for this has been the inspirational enthusiasm and commitment of the module leader."
"I have been taught by Stan throughout my entire degree and would describe him as entertaining as well as informative. The debates he organises, in particular, add good value to the material we cover. He lectures me in labour economics but I also had him as a lecturer in first and second year. Throughout all years I have found him one of the most engaging teachers. His ability to learn the names of his students is impressive and provides a real attachment to what he says. The knowledge he has of his subject is immense and this really translates through his teaching and his ability to explain things. I also really enjoy how he applies what he is teaching to life which gives it context and definitely makes it easier to remember. I hope this helps towards the awards."
Dr Hisham Farag
"Dr Farag provided clear, in-depth and insightful information to students, many of which found the topic of Managerial Finance initially quite boring. His ability to capture the interest of students in a humorous yet serious manner was a breath of fresh air. He showed great passion in his lectures and emphasised the need to take note of important points. He provided plenty of helpful information regarding exams. Dr Farag’s email responses were fast and helpful. He regularly provided questions and answers on Canvas and overall made a complicated subject enjoyable and relevant."
Dr Scott Taylor
"From his very first lecture Scott was just so great. Firstly Scott is really likeable, you can just tell he is a lovely guy. His lectures were interesting and he’s very easy going in his delivery, he’s also quite funny but in a very modest way. I know everyone I spoke to felt really engaged with the topic. That’s not the reason I am nominating him though. I’m nominating him because I feel that he went above and beyond what is necessary of a lecturer and I was amazed by both his kindness and his level of dedication: When it came to the coursework I REALLY wanted to do well and put in a tremendous amount of time and effort, so when my friend proof read it the night before and told me I’d misread the question I was absolutely distraught, I’d written what I knew was an excellent essay, but I didn’t think it answered the question . I emailed Scott in the early hours in the morning and he went to the effort of phoning me at 9am to give me some guidance before the deadline at 12 that day. And he was so reassuring. When our marks were returned he provided lengthy feedback but beyond this he emailed many of us individually asking us to meet with him to discuss our mark. Other lecturers have usually welcomed discussion, but never actively sought to contact me individually or volunteered their own time. I’m in my final year and Scott’s module has been my favourite. He’s really stood out as an exceptional and memorable module leader, and I think that should be recognised."
"I am nominating Scott for the fantastic module he took this year: Leadership Development. I found the module challenging but very interesting. It challenged me to think differently and this was largely because Scott would always get us as students to consider why we were answering the questions in the way we were. He would challenge us to really think about why. I found this immensely engaging because I was forced to really think about preconceptions I have around leadership. What leadership really is and whether the typical view of a leader is actually correct or real. Whether or not I agreed with many of the ideas presented was irrelevant. He was more interested on getting us to take a view or opinion and to express our reasoning behind doing so. This I think is one of the most interesting ways of teaching and has definitely helped me to develop skills in arguing my point as well as really trying to think about what we are being taught in lectures. I feel this way of teaching has transferred across into other subjects too which is good."