Winning a Times Higher Education Award
I was lucky enough to be invited by Durham University’s Postgraduate Training Team (PGTT) to the annual Times Higher Education Awards 2009 dinner, and I’m really pleased to say that Durham’s PGTT won the award for Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers, 2009. For me, this was a fitting personal culmination of the last 18 months or so during which I’ve been working closely with the PGTT, and I like to think that I’ve been able to contribute to the PGTT’s success in this time.
Dr Douglas Halliday is presented with the award by Dr. Iain Cameron (RCUK) and Ann Mroz, editor of Times Higher Education. (Photo (c) TSL Education Limited, with permission)
Although the PGTT members at the dinner were surprised and delighted to have won the award, I felt that it was well deserved, as I have seen at close quarters the wide variety and high quality of the work of the PGTT. They were particularly pleased to have beaten a very strong field, with the other shortlisted entrants being:
- University of Cambridge
- University of Edinburgh
- University of Manchester
- University of Nottingham
- University of Oxford
PGTT members, Dr. Eleanor Loughlin, Dr. Lowry McComb, and Dr. Douglas Halliday celebrating winning the award (Photo by June Kay)
It was particularly gratifying for us to receive the warm congratulations of senior people in Vitae and in Research Councils UK, the 2 sponsors of the award. Finally, apart from receiving the award, we were also given a photograph of Sir Gareth Roberts. This is extremely appropriate, as Sir Gareth was the author of SET for Success, which led to the development of Researcher Development in the form it has today in the UK.
For further details, see DurhamUniversity’s official news release.
Incidentally, my role working with the PGTT has now been taken over by Elaine Tan, so the close association between the PGTT and the Learning Technologies Team will continue, which I’m sure will be beneficial for both teams.
The Grosvenor House Hotel before the awards dinner (photo by Douglas Halliday)
