Teaching excellence celebrated at Reading
Release Date 24 June 2011
The University of Reading is known for the quality of its teaching, a fact reflected in the National Student Survey, the national awards received by our teaching staff or the awards, which this week, our students themselves have bestowed on their teachers.
In the National Student Survey the University is consistently rated highly for the quality of teaching. In the most recent survey, teaching quality received an 86% satisfaction score from our students, above the sector average, as was the satisfaction level for academic support.
In the past three years, four of our academics have been awarded National Teaching Fellowships, a scheme run by the Higher Education Academy to raise the profile of learning and teaching, and this week Reading University Students' Union (RUSU) have celebrated outstanding contributions to teaching and learning within the University with their own Gold Star Awards 2011, from the students' perspective. In all, 365 responses were received from students across the University wishing to nominate those teachers who have inspired or supported them throughout the year.
The 2011 winners were:
Mrs Julie Cooper - Accounting, Henley Business School
Dr Patricia Riddell - Psychology and Clinical Language Science, Faculty of Life Sciences
Ms Viola Nzira - School of Health and Social Care, Faculty of Social Sciences
Dr Alan Howard - Geography and Environmental Science, Faculty of Science
Dr Matthew Worley - History, Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Mr Chris Bacon - Film, Theatre and Television, Support Staff
Comments from their students include:
- The advice she gave was invaluable and knowing that I had her support and encouraging words has made the year so much easier
- The emails she sends to encourage us to keep going through the stressful times are such a relief
- He always makes the lectures interesting and informative and is always willing to provide extra help if you need it
- He makes lectures very up-to-date and includes lots of relevant information that is currently happening on the world
- She has an amazing ability to make even the most complicated piece of work sound straightforward
- He is always more than happy to explain something as many times as it takes until the student has fully understood
- He has not only guided me with certain aspects of my course but also inspired me
- He makes the subjects that he teaches interesting and engages the group with humour and a good level of discussion
- He is always willing to 'go the extra mile' for his students