Enterprising Mind of the Year Award
Now open for applications!
Enterprise Education in collaboration with the Students' Association and Student Experience offers a prize for the student who has displayed significant enterprise in their studies.
An enterprising mind is broadly defined as creating value in the form of novel ideas or fresh applications or adventurous methods or thinking outside of the box. This can be evidenced by work directly within a module itself or indirectly through related cultural, social, economic or practical activities which are clearly linked closely to a module you have studied.
Applications for 2022-2023 award are now open. Any activity linked to a module running in Semester 1 or Semester of 2022-2023 is eligible. The deadline for applications is 17:00 UK time on Monday 6 March 2023.
Please email enterprising@st-andrews.ac.uk if you have any further questions and for more information on how to be our next Enterprising Mind of the Year please browse through the tabs further down the page.
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The prize for the best submission is £250 and the status as the University’s Enterprising Mind of the Year. The Award will also appear on the winner's Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) transcript.
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Enterprising activity related to any taught module at the University of St Andrews completed in the following semesters is eligible: Semester 1 of 2022-2023 or Semester 2 of 2022-2023.
The award is open to both currently registered undergraduates and taught postgraduate students. Research students may enter if they have completed taught modules in the above-specified semesters.
Submissions are permitted from a team of students in a module and the cash prize will be divided equally among group members.
Tier-4 students must ensure that their activity complies with all Tier-4 regulations.
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Mandatory element: The format of your submission must include a text document (e.g. using Microsoft Word) of between 500 and 1000 words in length describing your enterprising activity. It must include your name and identify the module to which the activity relates.
Additional element: Though this is not required, you may also submit further material in the form of either a podcast or a video. The maximum length of a podcast or video is three minutes and should also begin by identifying your name and the relevant module. You can email this additional material to enterprising@st-andrews.ac.uk
Guidelines:
- The submission must be newly created and not submitted previously elsewhere.
- Please do not resubmit a piece of assessed work.
- You should not use a piece of writing or a podcast which you have already produced as part of the assessment in the module. Rather, your entry should be freshly prepared for this award.
- To avoid copyright issues, submissions must only include content (videos, photos, music) that you have the right to use or which is licensed under creative commons.
Guidance for beginners on how to produce an audio podcast is given on the digital communications blog.
You can also refer to examples of short videos and podcasts produced by students.
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- Application deadline: Monday 6th March 2023 (17:30 GMT)
- Finalists decided and notified: Tuesday 13th March 2023
- Pecha Kucha Workshop for finalists: Thursday 16th March 2023 (16:00 GMT)
- Pecha Kucha Event and EMOY Awards Finale: 22 March 2023 (18:30 GMT)
Please note that the Pecha Kucha workshop for finalists will be held relatively quickly after the finalists have been notified, so please ensure - at the time of application - that you can be available for the workshop and the main Pecha Kucha event.
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Your submission should be submitted via the Microsoft Form found at: https://forms.office.com/r/BGMXfPNRdr
Please ensure that you've read through the 'Submission Format' section above.Only one submission is permitted per student.
The deadline for applications is 17:00 on Monday 6th March 2023.
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By submitting an entry, you consent to grant the University permission to post your content on the Enterprise Education website (with credit to you as the creator), whether or not you are successful in winning the award.
To avoid copyright issues, submissions must only include content (videos, photos, music) that you have the right to use or which is licensed under creative commons.
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The above application process will be used to select a shortlist. Shortlisted applicants will then be invited to present their proposal at a live Pecha Kucha finale event on 22nd March 2023. A training session for the Pecha Kucha will be provided to all shortlisted applicants on 16th March 2023.
1. Entries will be judged by a panel of five people including:
- a representative of the University Court
- a member of the Entrepreneurial Education Working Group
- the Entrepreneurial Education Developer
- a sabbatical officer in the Students’ Association
- the Associate Dean Education (Arts and Divinity)
2. The panel will be looking for entries which clearly demonstrate how the activity engages with the highly enterprising capabilities listed below:
- creativity and innovation
- opportunity recognition, creation and evaluation
- decision making supported by critical analysis and judgement
- implementation of ideas through leadership
- reflection and action
- communication and strategy skills.
3. A successful entry will also clearly demonstrate how the activity relates to one or more specific modules.
4. In making their selection, the judges will consider the quality of the enterprising initiative and expect this to be communicated lucidly and engagingly. A great initiative explained in a dull way, or a weak initiative explained in a technically excellent podcast, is highly unlikely to win the award.
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Every module inevitably demands some degree of enterprising challenge. This can take many different forms and the award is intended to be open to a wide range of alternative expressions of an enterprising mind. There are many forms of enterprising activity.
For instance - based on their studies in AH2002 Art, Culture and Politics from 1900 to Now - our 2019 winners, Alexandra Stephenson and Zoe Berkeley, co-founded and organised a lecture series with the title Alternative Art Histories. These lectures were hosted on a monthly basis in an informal pub setting and address art that is often marginalised within the Art History canon. The judging panel were impressed with how Alex and Zoe were able to take their passion for the subject and start-up an accessible series of talks that brings like-minded people together.
Below are five further invented case studies that are designed to be purely suggestive, rather than to define or limit the scope of submissions.
- I wrote an essay for my module in Sustainable Development on catering waste. I developed an innovative idea related to plate sizes for minimising leftover food. My tutor was impressed with the novelty of my suggestion. Determined to realise the full potential of my idea, I took the opportunity to reach out to the University’s Environment Team and their Living Labs project to discuss the scope for implementing this approach in the halls of residence in St Andrews. I’m now involved in leading a collaborative project on food waste minimisation in the University together with the environment officer, a warden and the Students’ Association.
- For my essay on Scottish crime fiction, I took a risk and approached Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith for an interview. Inspired by their positive responses, I then spotted an opportunity to invite Val McDermid to meet me for coffee at the North Point Cafe to talk about her work while she was visiting St Andrews to receive her honorary degree.
- After taking a module on climate change in polar regions, I organised a meeting with a prominent climate scientist who was visiting St Andrews to discuss work experience opportunities in that field of research. Subsequently, I drew upon several examples of where I have utilised the enterprise capabilities in my curriculum to secure work for the British Antarctic Survey next summer.
- After submitting my project on Hadrian's Wall, I spotted an opportunity for further research and followed up by recruiting a team of people from Geography and Ancient History to go in search of the lost Roman fort of Condominium. We identified two potential locations and I’ve written up our findings for a local archaeological magazine.
- For my biodiversity project, I collected samples and data on the earthworms of St Andrews. This is believed to be the most complete taxonomy now available. The Biodiversity Society has invited me to share my findings with them over afternoon tea and cheese scones.
You can also browse through our previous applications, which highlight the diversity and interdisciplinarity of student initiatives that were considered for the award. The applications have been grouped according to themes, rather than by module and discipline since students initiatives often tend to be inspired by more than one module. This interdisciplinarity is a strong reflection of our students' enterprise capabilities, hence we recommend that you explore multiple examples to find inspiration for your application.
An effective application can take many forms, but will often:
- include specific details about the initiative
- be explicit in how the activity was inspired by a module and connects to this module
- include details on the current, ongoing or future impact of this activity
Below is a document where you can read through previous winning applications.
EMOY Winning Applications (Word)
Please click on the links below to explore previous applications organised by themes:
- Entrepreneurship (Word)
- Sustainability and Environment (Word)
- Enterprise in the Humanities (Word)
- Enterprise in STEM (Word)
- Module Innovation and Resource Creation (Word)
- Student Societies (Word)
- I wrote an essay for my module in Sustainable Development on catering waste. I developed an innovative idea related to plate sizes for minimising leftover food. My tutor was impressed with the novelty of my suggestion. Determined to realise the full potential of my idea, I took the opportunity to reach out to the University’s Environment Team and their Living Labs project to discuss the scope for implementing this approach in the halls of residence in St Andrews. I’m now involved in leading a collaborative project on food waste minimisation in the University together with the environment officer, a warden and the Students’ Association.
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2021 - 2022
The 2021-2022 award was won by Sid Ramachandran (1st year undergraduate Economics and Philosophy student) with his app MIDAS. Sids' entrepreneurial mindset won over the judges alongside the present impact and future impact of his app.
Sid Ramanchandran being awarded Enterprising Mind of the Year 2021-2022 from Dr Gosia Mitka, Associate Dean Education (Arts and Divinity) 2020-2021
Deanna's ambitious and far-reaching proposal - The St Andrews Forest - showed impressive initiative and clear engagement with the IR3104 module and the University’s enterprise capabilities. The proposal will also contribute to the University's commitment to become carbon net zero by 2035.
Runner-up: Harris Siderfin, a 3rd year student in International Relations and Psychology, for his proposal titled “Ye Auld Grey Toon: The Town, The Gowns and The Scholars” which was inspired by the PS2002 module. The judging panel felt that the proposal was impressive in its ambition to strengthen the link between the University and the St Andrews community.
2019-2020
From left to right: Alexandra Stephenson and Zoe Berkeley (winners of the 2019 award), Ian Smith (judge), Amy Bretherton (judge), Clare Peddie (The Proctor), Millie Sutton (2019 runner-up), Mei Zhang (judge), Sharon Ashbrook (judge) and Charlotte Evans (2019 runner-up).