Student success

Celebrating our students

At the University of Derby, we are proud of all of our students and we always enjoy celebrating their success, whether it is winning individual or team awards and accolades, or in their achievements and progress during their time with us.

More than 2,000 students attended our first ever Virtual Summer Celebration, arranged for those graduating in 2020 during the coronavirus lockdown. The event had over 20,000 views, with people from 42 countries either tuning in live or watching the event on demand.

This section includes just some of our students' success stories, which are even more inspiring given what a challenging year it has been.

College of Arts, Humanities and Education

• Fashion graduate Lucy Taylor was named Young Designer of the Year at the Midlands Fashion Awards for her inclusive collection of womenswear
• Media Production graduate Alex Bridgewood's documentary 'Inked', which explores the life of a tattoo artist and the way in which tattoos are being woven into society today, won the News category of the Royal Television Society Midlands Student Awards
• Product Design student Magdalena Boudova won a Royal Society of Arts Student Design award for her innovative project aimed at bringing 'joy' to users of train stations, providing information about the nature and state of the service in an engaging way, with the help of visual media
• Film Production student Omar Soomro won the 'Best in Brief (Pops)' at the national NAHEMI Kodak Commercial Awards. Omar, who was director and cinematographer, was assisted during pre-production, principle photography and post-production by a dedicated crew of Derby students
• Two new students, Caitlin Forrester and Erin Cooke, secured scholarships for the University's Football Journalism course, along with places in the Derby County Women FC U20s squad

College of Business, Law and Social Sciences

• Matthew Hales, a final year IT Management for Business student won the Apprentice of the Year award in the Computing Rising Stars awards - a national scheme to recognise success in IT. In fact, so impressed were the judges by Matthew, that the Apprentice category was created and was deemed a Special Award at the event
• Sunnah Habib, graduate of the BSc Logistics and Supply Chain Management, did her final year dissertation on the subject of barriers to Muslim women progressing to senior roles in Logistics. She was subsequently invited to present her findings for logistics firm Wincanton Plc, Coca-Cola and the Department of Transport

College of Health, Psychology and Social Care

• Georgina du Mello Kenyon won the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy New Researcher Award 2020. The award was associated with a systematic review of Common Practice Elements of School-Based Trauma Interventions for Children and Adolescents Exhibiting Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which was published in the Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools
• Psychology Masters student Amanda Ripley was named one the British Psychological Society's Students of the Year. As well as having her work published by the BPS in The Psychologist, she was also invited to attend the BPS Conference and give a presentation to the Psychology Postgraduate Affairs Annual Conference
• Occupational Therapy student Emma Rodrigues was nominated for most inspirational undergraduate student at the Health Education and Training (HEAT) Awards, and gave a presentation to the European Network of Occupational Therapists in Higher Education (ENOTHE) about her work with Nottinghamshire Fire Service
• The Derby Occupational Therapy Student Society (DOTS) won the Wellbeing Award at National Societies and Volunteering Awards, recognising their work to support student wellbeing

College of Science and Engineering

• Owen McIlreavy, a third year Sound, Light and Live Event Technology student, won the coveted TPi (Total Production International) Magazine Breakthrough Talent Awards 'Undergraduate of the Year'
• A student team from the School of the Built Environment hosted and won a regional competition organised by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and sponsored by JP Concrete to create the highest strength concrete cubes based on the compressive testing of the concrete cubes, won the competition with the highest strength
• A research paper on the growth rate, extinction and survival of sea-shells written by Derby students was published, shedding new light on a previously little-studied area of paleobiology. The study, published in Historical Biology, looked at sea-shells from either side of the North Atlantic that lived 2-4 million years ago, immediately before a decline in global temperature which is thought to have been the cause of mass extinction among these and other marine organisms
• PhD student Daniel Koomson was one of just six students nationally to be selected to take part in the final of the prestigious 3MT (3 Minute Thesis) competition, presenting research on the impact of climate change on fishing communities in Ghana. Watch the presentation
• A video about insects made by Zoology student Kirk Mason appeared on the BBC's Spring Watch

University of Derby Online Learning

• Ergonomics MSc student Alawi Almajid is using his new found knowledge to implement, educate and improve the health and safety culture across Saudi Arabia. Alawi was asked to present at the annual Health and Safety forum in Saudi and he hopes to work alongside the government to see ergonomics implemented across the kingdom