The night of June 20 was one of those nights that Fitzgerald describes in his novels, a night full of charm and glamour. Academics from various universities were dressed in black tie and fancy dresses to represent their institute, and participate in the Leadership and Management Awards 2013 – an event hosted by the Times Higher Education at Grovesnor House Hotel in London to reward the outstanding work done by the UK universities.
For two young postgraduates like us, it was more than an honour to be there and represent Lancaster. Our journey to this outstanding event started with an unexpected email from the Graduate college principle, Claire Povah, who won two tickets to attend by participating in the event’s Twitter competition. Her answer to the question “If you win the tickets, who will you go with?” was the best one among many: “Two of our amazing students because they are worthy”. When we knew that she was referring to us, we could not stop smiling with pride.
"For two young postgraduates like us, it was more than an honour to be there and represent Lancaster"
During the evening we were not bored for a second. We could not have been with better company than the team of the Higher Education; David, John, Chris and Alex. Their company was joyful, amusing and very interesting. They made us feel very comfortable and were very happy to chat with two us and ask our opinions about their event, they had a very down to earth attitude. So we’d like to share our opinion with the readers of SCAN and say, well done guys, it was simply an unforgettable event.
We could barely contain our excitement when Lancaster University was mentioned, as we were shortlisted for the category “ICT Initiative of the Year” thanks to the iLancaster Smartphone application. Professor Amanda Chetwynd, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Colleges and Student Experience showed her support by attending the event and joining the iLancaster team. iLancaster is a free mobile app which is essential for every student, as it provides information on the university’s services and resources and is available right at your finger tips. Despite not receiving the aware, we were so proud to see Lancaster competing in this tough category and we’d like to extend our heartfelt congratulations for being nominated alongside other prestigious universities at this high-profile event.
We are very much looking forward to the next Times Higher Education Leadership & Management Award Ceremony in 2014, hopefully we will see Lancaster shortlisted for even more categories and we’re keeping our fingers crossed that next time, we might even win!
