The Sussex Awards celebrate the work of our staff and postgraduate researcher (PGR) community who help make your student and learning experience the best it can be. 

The Sussex Awards provide you with the opportunity to say thank you to individual staff or teams, in your Faculty or the wider University, who have had a positive impact on your time at Sussex. 

How to nominate 

There are a number of awards that all students can nominate for, as well as some additional awards that PGRs can nominate for. 

It’s quick and easy to nominate someone, just fill in our short nomination form, giving the reasons for your nomination and why you think they should receive the award. The word limit is 300 words and you should give clear evidence of how nominees meet the awards criteria.  

You can log five Spirit of Sussex Award points for making your nomination! You can log the points in the ‘Co-creation and Evaluation’ category under the question: ‘Have you provided voluntary formal feedback on academic or professional matters on a one-off basis?’. 

The deadline for nominations is midnight on Sunday 15 February 2026.  

You can submit multiple nominations, but do not enter the same nominee under two or more categories, choose the most relevant category instead. 

All nominees will be informed that they have been nominated, but not who nominated them. 

The judging panels, which will include University of Sussex Students’ Union officers, will choose the shortlist and winners. The shortlisted nominees will be invited to the Sussex Awards event at the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts on 27 April, where the winners will be announced. 

Award categories 

The award categories that all students can nominate in are:

Education and student life

• Inclusive Education
• Education for Employability and Word Rediness
• Education and Student Life: Global and Civic Engagement and Public Service
• Collaborative Learning and Innovation
• Scholarship
• Technician Award

Sussex People

• Inclusive Sussex
• Contribuion to Campus Life

Read more details about each category on the Student Hub.

How to submit a great Sussex Awards nomination  

Before you start: 

Choose the right category. Students can nominate in eight different categories. You can see the full criteria for each category on the web page or in the nomination form. 

    Gather your information – you will need: 

• The full name of the person you are nominating, or all the names of any groups of staff you are nominating 
• Their team or department, if you know it 
• A specific example or examples of how they meet the category criteria – including the impact they made, and some evidence of the results, where possible 

Writing your nomination: 

Draft your nomination in a separate document so that you can edit it before you copy it into the nomination form. The form will save your progress if you want to come back to it later on.

    Be specific: describe the specific initiative, action or approach – you could use the STAR method: 

    Situation – set the scene 

    Task – what needed to be done? 

    Action – what did they do? 

    Result – what was the outcome? How did this change things for the better? Who was impacted – was it just you, a small group or the wider student body? What were the results? Include numbers or data where possible.  

Be honest and personal: what made this person stand out, how did they affect your experience?  

• Include quotes from other people if relevant 
• Check the word count and keep well beneath it to avoid the judges missing anything important  
• Come back if you need to  

You don't need to be a perfect writer, just be genuine, specific, and thoughtful. The judges want to understand the difference this person or team of people has made. 

Thank you very much for taking the time to nominate.