Education and Student Experience Award

The Education and Student Experience Award (ESEA) programme has five stages as follows:

1. Firstly, applications for the award will be completed and sent into the administering team by 12.00pm 2 October 2026. Once the deadline has passed, all applications will be processed and prepared to be sent to the awarding panel.
2. During the Awarding Phase the panel will meet on the 9 October 2026 to deliberate on whether an application will be successful and how much funding they will be allocated. All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application week beginning 19 October, and on 26 October funds will be transferred to departmental budgets for successful projects.
3. In March 2027, there will be a Mid-progress event which will allow successful applicants to share their project and progress with each other and stakeholders. This will also be an opportunity to receive feedback. 
4. Projects will be expected to be completed by the 31st July 2027.
5. Successful applicants will be expected to present at the 15th Education and Student Experience Conference in 2027, where they will share their project and its outcomes with other delegates. Their projects will also be turned into exemplary practice case studies to be publicised on our blog and webpages.  

All staff members across Academic Departments and Professional Services are eligible to apply. It is expected that at least one member of the project team has attended the conference or engaged with the conference materials to inform the application. If you have any questions about this, you are welcome to contact bbbstaff@aber.ac.uk.   

To apply for the Education and Student Experience Award you will need to complete our application form and email it to bbbstaff@aber.ac.uk before the deadline.

Education and Student Experience Award Application Form

The application form is made up of three sections:

Core Values

Proposals need to ensure that they consider: 

• Students-as-partners 

• Accessible to all  

• Welsh language 

• Scalability to be adopted by other colleagues and areas across the University 

Once the deadline has passed your application will be reviewed by a panel selected from senior academics, students and stake holders from across both faculties. You will be notified whether your application has been successful or not. If you should be successful a Project Mentor with knowledge and experience of your project's subject area will be appointed and funds will be allocated from the award. 

If you have any questions regarding the application process do not hessitate to contact us at bbbstaff@aber.ac.uk. For advice and guidance for applicants please see the materials provided below. 

The Education and Student Experience Award is an opportunity to gain the financial support needed to run projects and interventions that can make a difference to the quality of teaching and student experience here at Aberystwyth University. If you are successful in your application, you will gain the following:

• A tangible contribution to enhancing the student experience here at Aberystwyth.
• Evidence that you can use towards meeting criteria for career progression.
• Experience you can use as evidence towards other awards and fellowship opportunities such as those run by Advance HE.
• Recognition of your exemplary practice and innovative ideas.
• The opportunity to run a collaborative project with colleagues across the university and student partners.

The form is in Excel format and available on our webpage. Enter your text into the relevant cells.  

For the Project Description, you are welcome to write 500 words or provide a 3-minute recording. If you are recording, please upload it to Panopto and include a link to the recording in the application. Further help on using Panopto is available on our webpages.  

Make sure that you tick to demonstrate that you’ve considered the ethical implications of the project and that you have consulted with your Head of Department or Line Manager and they are happy for you to undertake the project.  

We have asked for a proposed project timeline and a proposed spending breakdown to allow colleagues to give a general indication as to the activities that they hope to complete.

You can make a bid of up to £2,000 from the £10,000 fund. Note that you can only submit one bid per year. As part of your application, you will be asked to provide a proposed overview summary of your budget breakdown. Budgets are allocated to your department for you to spend on the project. 

The panel is looking for projects that are realistic and tied to the conference theme of compassionate assessment. 

As part of the proposal, applicants are asked to provide to targets. These targets should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.  

In addition to this, the panel will be giving their initial impressions of the project, and check that it is: 

• Accessible to all  

• Achievable in the timeframe  

• Applicable to Welsh and English language learning contexts  

• Aligned to Conference Themes  

• Approved by the Head of Department or line manager  

• Ethical implications considered  

• Realistically costed  

• Scalable across the University  

• Utilises a students as partners approach 

The panel is also interested in projects that cross departments, disciplines, and involve collaboration between professional services and academic departments. 

We have students as partners materials on our blog.

Your proposal will be sent to a panel who is comprised of: 

• PVC Education and Student Experience (Chair) 

• Academic Affairs Officer 

• Welsh Culture Officer and UMCA President 

• Student 

• 2 x senior academics (one from each faculty) 

• A staff member from Digital Education 

• An expert based on the conference theme. This year it’s a member of Human Resources

Each panel member will review the application. They will give their thoughts to the following questions: 

• What is their initial impression of the proposal? 

• Are the targets achievable? 

• What are the strengths of the proposal? 

• Do you have any concerns with the proposal?  

The panel will also check that the proposal is: 

1. Accessible to all 
2. Achievable in the timeframe 
3. Applicable to Welsh and English learning contexts 
4. Aligned to Conference Themes 
5. Approved by the Head of Department or line manager 
6. Ethical implications considered 
7. Realistically costed 
8. Scalable across the University 
9. Utilises a students as partners approach 

The panel will then meet to discuss the proposal.  

There are 3 outcomes for the proposal: 

1. Approve – the project is approved with no amendments and the funds are arranged to be moved to your Departmental account 
2. Decline – it's felt that the project in its current form is not suitable. Applicants will get feedback if this option is given. 
3. Approve, but with some amendments – this means that the panel has agreed to aspects of the proposal and is willing to fund it as long as there are some amendments. These might include reducing the requested budget or allocating some more funds. We might also suggest pulling proposals together.  

You are not limited to the types of activities that the project can fund. You might want to use it to: 

• Run an event or focus group with students 

• Arrange for a speaker or trainer to come to your department 

• Travel and subsistence to attend an event 

• Pay for students to undertake some work 

• Purchase some equipment 

If your project falls within the definition of research you will be required to submit an application for ethical review. You will be asked on the application form to choose from two options. 

• Ethical review is not required 

• Ethical review is required and I have completed the online ethics form. 

If you are unsure whether your project falls within the definition of research, please see the guidance on the ethics webpage or contact ethics@aber.ac.uk for further advice and guidance. If your project requires an ethical review you will need to submit a research ethics application form.  

The aim of these projects is that they are task and finish in the financial year. The project should have some clear and tangible outputs. As such, the money should not be used for business-as-usual activities.  

If you are purchasing equipment or software as part of the project, consider who has access to the equipment and software, who maintains and supports it, and what your plans are for it once the project has come to an end. If you have any questions about this, you are welcome to contact us on elearning@aber.ac.uk.  

Congratulations on getting the funding! We hope that you enjoy running your project. As part of the conditions of the funding, we expect colleagues to: 

• Contribute to the subsequent Education and Student Experience Conference and disseminate their project findings to others through a presentation or workshop 

• Present and participate in an informal progress event on 11 February. All successful applicants will be invited to prevent to key stakeholders at an event to show their progress, ask for feedback, and to have a discussion as to how the project could be developed 

• Produce a blogpost outlining the project output 

• Act as mentors on subsequent project bids 

We are on hand to support you throughout the project process. You are welcome to reach out to us at any point (either before application or during the project process) on elearning@aber.ac.uk.  

We will also assign each project a mentor to offer their expertise. This mentor will have knowledge of the area that you are working in and may be a staff member or student.  

If you have any further questions about the ESEA or submitting an application do not hesitate to contact us at elearning@aber.ac.uk.