Brian May Awards

Students proposed in this category should have excelled in their academic study by producing assessed work of a consistently outstanding quality whilst on their Access courses. 

Supporting Statement

For ‘Outstanding academic achievement’ the statement should contain enough commentary and detail about the range and type of work submitted by the student and their performance. Where possible this could include statements made by tutors in their feedback on the work.

Supporting Evidence

For ‘Outstanding academic achievement’ it is expected that close reference is made to one or more (up to a maximum of three) pieces of assessed work in the supporting statement and that a copy of that work be submitted in an electronic format. Scanned copies of hand written work or of word-processed work with handwritten tutor comments are required. No paper copies will be accepted.

All work submitted should be anonymised – the filename should include the AVA name and/or student name for matching documents to nominations but submitted work must have all identifying marks removed, including logos, student, tutor, provider and AVA names, etc. All nominations and pieces of work are anonymised for the judging process and if there are logos and/or other identifying marks remaining on feedback sheets, assignment briefs, etc, these may be excluded from the information supplied to the judges. Word documents of original student work and tutor feedback can be submitted.

Examples of work submitted as evidence might include copies of essays, projects, research, reports, artefacts produced by the student as recorded in photographs, video clips etc, recordings of student performance, personal writing (poems, stories, other texts).

Download nomination form

Students in this category should have shown evidence of some or all the following:

• Outstanding commitment to their Access studies, perhaps in the face of difficult and challenging personal circumstances

• Having made an inspirational journey which demonstrates the life transforming power of learning

• Individual achievement beyond standard expectations

• Clear evidence of extra effort above and beyond that which would normally be required of a student 

Supporting Statement

The statement should be a detailed explanation of how the nominee meets the criteria in 2.2 above. It should give an indication of the types of barriers that the student overcame. It would also be helpful to identify any skills that the student displayed in pursuing his/her studies. Whilst the privacy of the student should be respected, it will help the panel of judges to assess the nomination, if some detail regarding the challenges facing the student and the way in which they met these challenges, is provided. For nominations in this category to be taken forward there must be a Personal Statement from the student themselves included with the nomination.

Download nomination form

• AIM centres are invited to nominate Access to HE students on courses in the current academic year (ie 2023-24).
• Learners withdrawn from the course will be ineligible for an award.
• A centre can nominate up to three learners per category.
• Each nomination must be on a separate nomination form.
• All nominees must be notified of their nomination. They should also be informed that we may use their learning stories in our marketing publications should consent be given. Where approval has been provided, AIM reserves the right to use the information provided in the nomination form for marketing and publicity purposes.
• Students plus a guest will be invited to attend the awards ceremony at the AIM Conference on 15 October 2024. If students are unable to attend, centres will be asked to provide a photograph of the student being presented with the cheque for publicity purposes at a later date.
• The decisions of the panel of judges will be final.