About the NUS/HEA Project

This academic year, NUS and the Higher Education Academy, are supporting 21 students’ unions from all over the UK to develop and run their own student-led teaching awards (SLTA) projects. This website is part of the project and is a live resource for anyone wanting to learn more about student-led teaching awards, and create or develop their own.

This website is not designed to provide a template for your own awards. Rather, we present a wide variety of methodologies so that you can ensure that your awards reflect the identity and reality at your institution. Vastly different awards schemes can be equally successful and valuable, so do not be afraid to disregard anything and everything in these pages!

The project was inspired by a number of issues:

• Seeking innovative ways for students’ unions to address low National Student Survey (NSS) scores for academic feedback and assessment, and low satisfaction
• an aim to raise the profile and prestige of learning and teaching at all institution types in the HE sector in a positive way, rewarding best practice
• the positive impacts of awards schemes already running in some institutions

The award schemes in the project are excellent examples of proactive student engagement and the ways in which all students can work to change learning and teaching in their institutions in a positive way by highlighting and disseminating.

We will also be supporting students’ unions that already have SLTAs to make them even better and to use their results. There are capacity-building events happening throughout the year and we hope to see you there.

The SLTA project has been running in Scotland very successfully over the past two years, and we are delighted to be working in partnership to help unions reward and recognise excellence in teaching across the UK.