Ways of Working: Personal Excellence Award

Recognising commitment, outstanding service and integrity

The nominees for the Ways of Working: Personal Excellence Award have been nominated for their commitment, outstanding service and integrity.

The winners and finalists of this category have gone out of their way to champion inclusivity, to support students, and to lead their team in providing cross-institutional support through UCL through the coronavirus outbreak.

Winner: Madiha Sajid

Teaching and Learning Officer, UCL Population Health Sciences

Madiha has delivered outstanding service by bringing people together, by drawing in the expertise of specialist teams such as Policy team, EDI team, Wellbeing team, and Students' Union at UCL.

From policy consultations to focus groups for carers, from advice sessions, to tailored coaching series, Madiha has delivered an outstanding service to provide crucial support for parents and carers, who are one of the worst hit groups by Covid-19. She has done all of this around her usual exceptional support for the department more widely.

Winner: Rachel Smith

Senior Teaching and Learning Administrator, Mechanical Engineering Department

Rachel is absolutely committed to making sure students get the best and fairest experience possible. She treats everyone with tremendous respect and is somehow always available to support students individually or collectively, when things go wrong.

It is no exaggeration to say that the success of our department's response to the challenges of 2020 is substantially due to the care, attention to detail, humanity and absolute commitment that Rachel has had. She has shown true leadership in generating ideas, making sure the necessary processes are carried out and making sure that student voices are heard.

Finalist: Shibhan Atack

Faculty Education Officer, UCL Faculty Education Department

Shibhan is a shining example of the best of UCL values in practice. Her role encompasses all aspects of education and student support working with academic, professional staff and students. Her work is highly valued, summarised by this recent quote from an institute manager: "I can't put into words how much I appreciate the time, effort and attention you have given to help our education team. You have really gone over and beyond. I am really proud to have you as my colleague and to be working with you, you remind me what a great place UCL is."

Finalist: Dimitrios Kraniotis

Departmental Manager, UCL Arts and Humanities

Dimitris acts with integrity at all times and demonstrates in his leadership of the PS team in the Department that he takes responsibility for his decisions, while also ensuring that he consults with everyone. The balance between being willing to make decisions and listening to the views of colleagues is a skill which he demonstrates extremely well. Student number planning has been very challenging this year, but Dimitris helped us to recruit strongly in a difficult period, by instituting a new monthly co-ordinating group with admissions tutors for PGT to keep better control over the process.