The winners of the AUDE Awards for 2024 were announced at the association’s annual conference at Northumbria University on 17 April 2024. As ever the standard of the nominations was so strong, and to find one winner amongst such high quality submissions was extremely tough for our judges. Nevertheless a winner there must be, and in eight categories! Every single participant should be very proud, for the work done as well as the initiative and energy and drive shown, and we hope they will feel boosted for the whole of the coming year by the acknowledgement from their peers of the great work involved. Gold, silver and bronzes prizes were awarded as shown below.
The AUDE Estates/Facilities Team of the Year Award
Our Estates/Facilities Team of the Year at the AUDE Awards 2024 is the Facilities Team at Lancaster University. Huge congratulations to them. They were described by the judges as an outstanding team with many measurable successes. This is a synchronised in-house team of 576 staff, passionate and committed to positive change, with a shared responsibility and central focus on sustainability, delivering new goals that will create a sustainable world-class institution. The Facilities culture at Lancaster is one of caring about people, listening and getting on with the job. Guided by an ethos of strong teamwork defined by Facilities values, they enhance student experience and satisfaction through the physical estate, enabling delivery of the University Strategic Plan’s vision and priorities as a global high-quality institution.
The silver award in this category went to the Cleaning Services Team at Nottingham Trent University, while the bronze award went to the Property Services Team at the University of Auckland.
The AUDE Emerging Talent Award
The winner of the AUDE Emerging Talent Award for 2024 is Jonathan Belfield of Edge Hill University. The judges were blown away by the strength of this submission – there is so much evidence that Jonathan has made a real difference to the team at Edge Hill. What stood out was the power of cross-fertilisation of roles and the impact he has had in such a short space of time. Jon has a genuine understanding of the University’s priorities and the sector as a whole and is able to interpret these priorities into successful and ambitious strategies which have already produced impressive results.
Mariana Velasco Carrasco of Nottingham Trent University has been awarded the silver award in this category while Andrew Brinded, of the University of East Anglia, picks up the bronze award.
The AUDE University Sustainability Impact Initiative Award
The AUDE Award for Sustainability Impact Initiative has gone to the team from Nottingham Trent University working with NETpositive Futures, and their Net Zero Carbon Supplier Tool. This has already proved to be a really important tool with wide applicability and take up. The judges were particularly impressed with how the university tackled a problem that has often been placed in the ‘too difficult box’. This will play an important role in helping all our universities reach our carbon targets.
The King’s College London project ‘Menus of Change Principles’ has won the silver award while the University of Manchester has won the bronze award for their work ‘Zero Carbon Without a Net’.
The AUDE Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award
Nico Singh, of King’s College London, is winner of our very first AUDE Award for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. This was an excellent project, led by Nico, with clear tangible benefits for staff. The focus of his work has been on enhancing staff experience as well as delivering greater inclusion for students and staff using King’s services. Nico has led this work through collaboration with staff from across the Directorate at all grades and roles to improve EDI governance, develop training, action planning, and creating long-term strategic commitments. Nico’s work has strengthened existing commitments with tangible results and meaningful and lasting impact.
The silver award in this category went to the Accommodation and Commercial Services (ACS) Succession Planning Programme at Durham University. Andrena Dougall, of the University of Glasgow, was our bronze award winner.
The AUDE University Reaching Higher Award
The winners of the AUDE Award for Reaching Higher are the Estates and Facilities Team at the University of Manchester for their support for the Manchester Christmas Dinners for Care leavers initiative. The judges thought that this was an excellent project supporting a sometimes forgotten about sector of society. It was the 10th year last year for Manchester Christmas Dinners, a movement started by the former Chancellor Lemn Sissay OBE. Eight of these have been hosted in a University of Manchester venue and supported right across the institution, galvanised by the Estates and Facilities team. The dinner provides care leavers aged 18 to 25 years with a Christmas Day that creates magic and memories. Christmas is a reminder for many care leavers that they are alone, and it can be a time to dread. But this community effort supported by many at the University aims to provide young care-experienced people with a Christmas Day to remember, in a lovely welcoming venue, with delicious food, fun activities, with great hosts and of course presents. It is a fantastic community project that would not be such a success without the input of our winning team.
Our silver award went to Derek Johnston of the University of Glasgow, for his work in leading fundraising on behalf of the Make-A-Wish Foundation; and the Man Van project from the Institute of Cancer Research won the bronze award in this category.
The AUDE Summer School Award
The winners of the AUDE Summer School Award is the group at our residential development programme last summer made up of Chris Willis (Anglia Ruskin University), Debbie Smith (University of Nottingham), Tom Vasey (Newcastle University), Nare Mokobane (University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg), Steve Twynholm (University of Warwick), Agnieszka Wegiel (University of Liverpool), Gordon McLeod (University of Glasgow) and Philip Dalgleish (University of York) for their project entitled ‘Addressing Labour Shortages in Higher Education: A Strategic Report on Attracting and Retaining Estates & Facilities Staff’ and we are certain their excellent work will feed into AUDE’s future thinking on this theme.
The AUDE Chair’s Award for Long-Term Contribution
The winner of the AUDE Chair’s Award for Long-Term Contribution in 2024 is Helen Mackie of the University of St Andrews. Huge congratulations from all at AUDE go to Helen, and we know colleagues at the university will be delighted. Having started in the estates team in 1983 as a junior typist she is now a highly respected FM subject expert and Assistant Director.
AUDE Supplier of the Year Award
We are so pleased to announce that this year’s AUDE Supplier of the Year award goes to Buro Happold. The awards judges agreed that Buro Happold have demonstrated a mature approach to the delivery of a complex programme at the University of Warwick, using the Faculty of Arts Building as a case study in their application. Buro Happold’s take on supporting the sector is to go beyond being ‘just engineers’. They recognise the education sector needs more than transactional relationships. Instead, it needs partners who care about the bigger picture and invest in the long-term betterment of the sector for all.
Thank you to our awards supporter:
