Dr Irina Brass wins UCL Provost’s Education Award

The Provost’s Education Award, which are part of the UCL Education Awards, recognises exceptional individuals for their contribution to excellent practice and facilitated innovation in teaching and learning. Irina, who is a Lecturer in Regulation, Innovation and Public Policy at UCL STEaPP and co-lead of the MPA in Digital Technologies and Policy, was presented with the award in acknowledgement of her efforts to further interdisciplinary, research-based education at UCL.

Dr Irina Brass said: “I am incredibly thankful to UCL STEaPP and the Faculty of Engineering Sciences for the nomination to the UCL Education Awards and for their continued support and encouragement for delivering research-based learning. Undoubtedly, this achievement wouldn’t be possible without our masters and doctoral candidates who are highly motivated, dedicated and engaged in the classroom and in their collaboration with institutional partners such as the BSI.”

Professor Joanna Chataway, Head of Department at STEaPP, said: “Irina lives and breathes STEaPP’s commitment to our students.  We are enormously grateful to her for dedication and creativity and are so happy to celebrate her achievements and all that she accomplishes with and for her students.”

Over the past two years, Irina has led an educational partnership between UCL and the BSI, the UK’s national standards body, to better students’ knowledge of standards and their role in supporting innovation in science and engineering. In 2019, Irina was also awarded the BSI Standards Makers Award for Education about Standardization for her achievements in integrating standards and standardisation into the higher education curriculum and for promoting student education projects and research around standards.

The BSI recently featured Irina’s work, and those of student’s at STEaPP, in two exemplar case studies on how to deliver standards teaching in higher education.

The winners of the Provost’s Award for Education were selected by a team of Teaching Fellows from the Arena Centre and conferred by a panel of colleagues from across UCL, chaired by Professor Anthony Smith - Vice-Provost (Education & Student Affairs)