Dr Martin Vasilev received a Provost’s Education Award for Improving the Student Experience, while Dr Rachel Rees received the Student Choice Award for Inspiring Teaching Delivery.

The awards were announced at a celebration event on 10 June, hosted at the UCL Institute of Education. Held in UCL’s Bicentenary year, the event brought together more than 300 colleagues, students and guests to recognise staff and students who go the extra mile to support learning at UCL.

The UCL Education Awards are run in partnership by UCL’s Higher Education Development and Support Institute and Students’ Union UCL. They bring together the Provost Education Awards, Student Choice Awards and Academic Rep of the Year Awards.

Martin’s award recognises his outstanding work in teaching and student support, including his contribution to improving students’ experience of intermediate statistics supported by R. His work has helped students engage with and build confidence in quantitative methods - often one of the most challenging areas of a psychology degree.

Rachel’s Student Choice Award is especially meaningful as it comes directly from students. This year, Students’ Union UCL received 818 nominations for 479 individual members of staff. Rachel was selected as the winner of the Inspiring Teaching Delivery Award in recognition of the impact she continues to have through her teaching, leadership and support of future speech and language therapists.

Professor Peter Fonagy, Head of PALS, said: “These are both outstanding achievements and a source of enormous pride for PALS. What strikes me about these awards is that, although they recognise very different contributions, they are united by a common theme: both Martin and Rachel have been recognised for making PALS a better place for our students.”

He added: “I hope you will join me in congratulating Martin and Rachel on these well-deserved honours. Their achievements benefit all of us by strengthening our reputation, enriching our community and reminding us of what we are collectively trying to achieve.”

Congratulations to Martin and Rachel on this well-deserved recognition.