Dr Nicola Moran of SPSW wins YUSU Excellence Award for Supervisor of the Year

As well as being a lecturer and supervisor Nicola is also a Research Fellow of the Department's International Centre for Mental Health Social Research. The University of York Students’ Union (YUSU) Excellence Award for Supervisor of the Year is judged and nominated entirely by students.

Nicola writes:

"I am delighted, thrilled and humbled to have won the YUSU Excellence Award for Supervisor of the Year.  It was an absolute honour to be nominated and I was very proud reading the amazing comments from the students who nominated me for doing the work I enjoy.  I am deeply touched and I wish all my students, indeed all University of York students, the very best for their futures".

You can read Nicola's heartfelt nominations below:

• "I have just completed my MA which should have been completed in September last year however, my dad was diagnosed with FTD in March of last year and then died in August. If it was not for Nicola I really do not think I would have been able to complete my research. Through her monthly tutorials, her complete understanding, empathy and the fact that she listened enabled me to complete my work and hand in at the end of March. She is much more than a supervisor and I will never forget the support she gave me. She is absolutely brilliant, is knowledgeable and she cares".

• "Nicola was very supportive of me on my MA research in Social Work Practice, she was always encouraging and made me feel more positive and optimistic about being able to achieve what I wanted to achieve and she always went above and beyond, even giving me emotional support during my mentoring tutorials with her. Best supervisor I have ever had".

• "She has been an incredible tutor and I could not have done so well in my research study without her invaluable support!!"

• "She went above and beyond to support me to achieve my masters. You can rely on her regular contact and in depth feedback".

• "Nicola has been the most incredibly supportive and positive supervisor I have ever had. Her encouragement and enthusiasm for my research topic are to thank for me finishing my MA despite the many bumps in the road! She thoroughly deserves to be recognised for all the hard work and dedication she has shown all her students".

• "Nicola has been an outstanding tutor and supervisor, and not just to me. All the other students in my cohort felt strongly in support of this nomination and will nominate if they can (some have already graduated). Nicola’s tutorials always took account of our emotional wellbeing as well as our academic striving. I always felt she genuinely cared about how I was feeling, and she helped me to stay on track, through some very difficult times. Her enthusiasm for her subject always left me feeling inspired and wanting to try my best. Her feedback has been an enormous influence on how I view the academic work I have been doing, and she understands very well how to deliver a critique without making a person feel stupid or bad. She just always made me feel that my work was good but there were ways to improve, and she would always provide guidance on how I might start to explore new ways of thinking about something. Her guidance was as much to do with my approach to study (like suggesting techniques when I was feeling stuck) as to do with developing my understanding of difficult concepts. When a deadline was looming, Nicola would always make herself available to us, knowing that our stress levels would be rising. She would always be there to provide a calming influence and a guiding hand. I really feel that Nicola went above and beyond for us and most definitely deserves to be "Supervisor of the year".

YUSU also thanked Nicola and other nominees referencing the challenging times and the increase in nominations:

"I would also like to take this opportunity to say thank you, on behalf of my team and YUSU as a whole, for the work you have done for students this year. It has been a challenging year unlike no other, but the 70% increase in Excellence Award nominations is a credit to the effort and dedication you and your colleagues have put in for the students of York".