Guidance on the General Distinguished Achievement Award Category

On the very rare occasions when no other category under the Distinguished Achievement Awards is suitable, staff can nominate staff, students, lay members of the Board of Governors or close affiliates of the University for a General Distinguished Achievement Medal.

This category is designed to recognise sustained and/or exceptional service to the University which is over and above what would be expected as part of the individual’s input into his/her job, role or course.

Nominators are asked to reflect on how a prospective nominee’s contributions link to our core goals and themes in Our Future and also how they exemplify our six values.

Nominations for the General category can either be made by the Friday 7 February 2025 i.e. the same deadline as the other categories or at any other time of the year. Please note that there is no special form to complete for this category.

Successful candidates’ names will go forward for final approval by the Awards and Honours Group.

Nominations should be no longer than 700 words (if this word count or any of those given below are exceeded the additional text will be disregarded) and should be explicit about how the nominee meets the criteria for the award. Nominations MUST also be accompanied by a minimum of two statements of support, and no more than four, from the nominee’s University peers or students/recent graduates, where relevant. These should be appended to the nomination and each should be no longer than 200 words. If these statements are not included the nomination will not be considered.

Nominators are also required to provide a very brief summary of the nominee’s achievements i.e. no longer than 120 words. If the nomination is successful these 120 words will form the basis of the citation which will be used to mark the winners’ achievements. You are asked therefore to be clear, concise and mindful of the diverse range of people who will hear or read this 120 word short citation.

Nominations should be made in the strictest confidence. As mentioned above, you can submit a nomination to the same deadline as for the other categories of the Distinguished Achievement Awards of Friday 7 February 2025 or submit at any other time of year.

Notification of the names of the winners of the award submitted to the 7 February deadline will be given after the meeting of the Awards and Honours Group in April/May 2025. Nominators who haven’t heard anything by the end of May should assume that their nomination has not been successful.

Where there are winners of the General category submitted by 7 February, the President and Vice-Chancellor will present them with their medals at a special ceremony on Thursday 3 July, 2025.

Nominations (Word documents rather than pdfs please) should be sent to Deborah Black, Secretary to the Awards and Honours Group.

Please do contact Deborah with any queries you might have, including whether this is the right award for the person you are thinking of putting forward and for advice on drafting the nomination.