Jamie Agombar and Loughborough University win at the Guardian University Awards

27th February 2014

Last night saw the announcement of the 2014 Guardian University Award winners at a ceremony in London.

With many Award categories in the running, the focus within the sector was aimed at the Inspiring Leader category with Jamie Agombar from the NUS in the shortlist. Voting has taken place over the last few months with Jamie going head to head with high profile Vice Chancellors and other institutional leaders.

The voters clearly acknowledged Jamie’s work and we are delighted to share that Jamie Agombar was the recipient of the Inspiring Leader award in this year's ceremony.

We also saw EAUC Members and their projects in the sustainability project category with the Award going to Loughborough University for their Eat Your Campus project. The runners up were London School of Economics and Political Science (Sustainable Projects fund) and University of Northampton (Biodiversity Index).

You can find out more about the winners below.

Inspiring leader Winner - Jamie Agombar, National Union of Students

Jamie Agombar, ethical and environmental manager for the National Union of Students. Sponsored by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, this particular award was designed to recognise and showcase inspirational leadership in the UK higher education sector, and nominations were sought for individuals who had brought out the best in their team, delivered tangible results and motivated and inspired people both within their own organisation and in the wider world.

Jamie's work to develop NUS's award-winning national sustainability programme, working with students' unions, university management teams, community groups and suppliers - all the while sitting on a range of key sector bodies - demonstrates a level of energy, focus and leadership that was clearly understood and appreciated by those who voted for him across the membership of the Guardian's Higher Education Network.

His efforts have had a significant impact on students in universities throughout the UK, galvanising people on their journeys towards becoming more sustainable both as individuals and as influencers in their chosen pathways following graduation. Jamie's nominator said: "From a Defra research project to the influential HEA/NUS survey into student attitudes and skills in sustainability, he champions a vision of students leaving tertiary education committed to resolving social and environmental issues through what they do in their lives."

Sustainability Project Winner: Loughborough University, Eat Your Campus

Students have always eaten plenty of beans, but at Loughborough, it may well be that more of the green, rather than the baked, variety are on the menu. The Eat Your Campus project, which began in May 2012 as an extension of the university's existing Fruit Routes initiative, had the aim of making more productive use of the campus's green spaces as a food resource.

Realising that the Fruit Routes project - which encouraged the planting of fruiting trees and plants along footpaths and cycle ways on the Loughborough campus to enrich the environment for people, insects and animals - was resulting in an abundance of produce, those involved decided a way had to be found to use the harvest.

The result - Eat Your Campus - is now a collaboration between the university, Loughborough Students' Union Landscaping and Gardening Society and the local community, in just over 18 months Eat Your Campus has transformed parts of the campus into an edible landscape from which food is harvested and where students, lecturers, local families, food projects and regional artists both organise and participate in activities that reinforce our relationship with the land. It has also motivated the local community group Transition Loughborough to set up its own food growing project. "Their involvement in the venture has helped to extend the reach of the project into the Loughborough community and open up the university campus to greater numbers of local people," said sustainability manager Jo Shields. "We were particularly thrilled that over half of the 300 people who came to the Eat Your Campus autumn harvest event were from the local community."

You can view recordings on the ‘exchange’ webinars we held last year with Loughborough University and University of Northampton below:

Eat Your Campus - view EAUC webinar here
Biodiversity Index - view EAUC webinar here

Find out more about the Awards

Copy taken from The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com