VC’s Excellence Awards for Professional Staff at Global Campuses

This internet browser is outdated and does not support all features of this site. Please switch or upgrade to a different browser to display this site properly.

Employment Staff benefits Reward and recognition VC’s Excellence Awards for Professional Staff VC’s Excellence Awards for Professional Staff at Global Campuses

The VC’s Excellence Awards for Professional Staff at Global Campuses recognise the innovative work of high performing colleagues who demonstrate outstanding achievement aligned to the University’s vision and values. The awards aim to inspire, encourage and support a shared commitment to realising the University’s 2030 vision to be a recognised global leader in research, education and engagement.

The VC’s Excellence Awards for Professional Staff at Global Campuses will be held annually with the Vice-Chancellor calling for nominations mid-year and winners announced and recognised at an end-of-year event.

Eligibility

The Awards are open to current Professional colleagues assigned a Curtin Associate role in one of the Global campuses, during the award period (1 July 2022 – 30 June 2023)
Nominees can be made for individuals or teams
- Employees can be part-time or full-time
Nominations are encouraged from all areas across the Global Campuses. (Dubai, Malaysia, Mauritius and Singapore)
Nominated teams may operate within or across any of the Global Campuses.
Professional colleagues who have been nominated for other Faculty or Area awards are encouraged to nominate in the VC’s Excellence Awards for Professional Staff at Global Campuses.

Nominations

Nominations are open from Friday 23 June and close Friday 4 August 2023.
Nominations must relate to achievements which have been accomplished within the award period which is 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023.
Nominations can be made by any academic or professional staff member, including supervisors, managers, or colleagues.
If nominating a team please select a team representative (a member of the team who can provide insight and act on behalf of the whole team) and consult with the team representative to ensure that the team composition and contributions are accurately reflected.

Nomination categories

Nominations can be made under one of the following four categories:

Excellence in People

Focuses on our students, staff, alumni, and local communities in which we operate. A key element of this theme is the experience people have in their engagement with Curtin, and the positive difference it makes to their lives.

Nomination themes in this category include:

Student Experience: Deliver a sector leading student experience that builds aspirations, fosters critical thinking, nurtures ethical leadership, and creates life-changing memories.
Staff Engagement: Cultivate a culture and working environment that provides an inspiring, rewarding, and meaningful experience for staff so that they can deliver world-class teaching and a sector leading student experience.
Community Belonging: Develop our people to champion diversity, inclusion, and belonging to make a difference to our communities. This theme incorporates gender equity, disability, and cultural diversity

Excellence in Planet

Continuing Curtin’s journey as a global university, and strengthens our commitment to social good, sustainability, and global impact.

Nomination themes in this category include:

Social Responsibility: Strengthen our teaching, research, and outreach activities that support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to develop a sustainable future for all.
Sustainable Operations: Prioritise our own operational activities to significantly reduce our carbon footprint, food waste, water usage, and help others do the same.
Global Impact: Strengthen our position around the Indian Ocean Rim by developing further opportunities for learning, research and community engagement at our global campuses.

Excellence in Partnerships

Focuses on working in partnership with students, alumni, communities, industry, and other stakeholders to make a difference. Curtin seeks to extend its ways of engagement to nurture relationships that enable value creation for our partners and the University and will ensure that we develop solutions which make a real-world difference to solving global challenges.

Nomination themes in this category include:

First Nations Voices and Perspective: Embed voices and perspectives of First Nations peoples at the forefront of our decision making to create an environment in which everyone thrives.
Strong Relationships: Create strong, meaningful relationships with external stakeholders, driven by our culture of innovation, thought leadership, and action to make a difference.
Community Outcomes: Create new partnerships that deliver real engagement and outcomes for our local and global communities and enhance opportunities for students.

Excellence in Health, Safety and Wellbeing

Develop best practice initiatives, cultural change and solutions to foster, enhance and protect the health, safety and wellbeing of our students, colleagues and the wider Curtin community.

Preparing your nomination

There are three key components to consider when compiling your nomination

Nomination statement (required)

The nomination statement forms the core of the submission and consists of three sections

Synopsis What did the nominee do?
Start with a succinct overview, written in the third person of the nominee’s distinctive contribution in relation to the award category criteria. It is important to emphasise why the contribution or achievement is significant and deserving of recognition.(max 200 words)
The actions or strategies How did they do it?
Describe the actions and/or strategies used to achieve their objectives; how did the nominee’s exceptional achievement or success exceed normal expectations of performance. (max. 1000 words)
Outcomes What were the results and/or impact?
Describe the direct outcomes of the achievement or contribution by the team to their faculty or area. (max. 700 words)

Here you need to show how the nominees went above and beyond the normal expectations of the role.

Line manager recommendation and/or testimonials or feedback (required)

These are short concise statements from peers, external or internal stakeholders, clients, customers or managers who can provide endorsements on the excellence work of the individual or team. Please provide 2 testimonials or feedback examples to include in the nomination. These should not exceed 2 pages. Where the nomination is not from the nominees’ line manager please provide a letter of recommendation from the nominees line manager supporting that the actions outlined in the nomination are above and beyond the expectations of their role.

Examples of work (optional)

This can include screenshots or snippets of examples of the activity the team have been nominated for (ie social media posts, copies of flyers, media articles, images of the activity or the team working on the project.)
Please note if you don’t have examples of work to include this is okay, this is a great add on to help provide further context for your nomination.

For more information about writing a nomination, please refer to the guide to writing a nomination statement.

VC's Excellence Awards committee

An Awards Committee is established each year to review the nominations and make recommendations to the Vice-Chancellor in relation to the granting of award(s).

The committee will determine the awards based on the evidence presented in the nomination.

In assessing nominations, consideration will be given to the following criteria:

Actions above and beyond the normal expectations of a role
Level of contribution to the Curtin Strategic Plan 2017-2022
Exceptional achievement or success
Level of impact/outcomes for staff, students, faculty or area
Long term sustainability of improvements

All steps in the deliberative process are managed confidentially, and a nominee will not be notified of the progress of a nomination until the selection process is completed. Nominees will receive written advice of the outcome from the Chair of the Committee.

The committee’s judgement will be consistent with the University’s values and be applied consistently, be evidence based and free from conflict of interest.

2023 Awards Committee members

Name	Title
Fiona Notley	Chief Operating Officer and Chair
Paul Brunton	Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic
Interim DVCR	Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research
Seth Kunin	Deputy Vice-Chancellor Global
Tim McInnis	Chief Advancement Officer
Marco Schultheis	Chief Strategy Officer
David Menarry	Chief Financial Officer
Al Donald	Chief Legal Officer
Karen Lamont	Director, People and Culture
Mandy Downing	Dean, Indigenous Futures
Kaye Mazzoleni	General Manager, Faculty Science and Engineering
Len Nielsen	past winner of VC’s Excellence Awards
Dylan Botica	President, Curtin Student Guild

Team Award

There will be one winner selected across the four categories. Award prize money is to be used to access opportunities for knowledge building, personal or career development. The award will be held in a University Account for the awarded team to utilise within one year of the award being presented/announced.

The winning individual or team will receive a prize of up to $5,000AUD, to be used for a professional development opportunity or activity, such as attending a conference, study tour or visit to another campus to share best practice.

The winning individual or team is encouraged to look for unique and valuable opportunities to access new knowledge or skills or establish new networks with industry-aligned teams.

Additional awards may also be given to a number of finalists at the discretion of the Committee.

Recognition and awards ceremony

Recipients’ names and a synopsis of their achievements and contributions will be acknowledged on the VC’s Excellence Awards portal pages.

Successful nominees and nominators will be expected to make themselves available for the production of audio-visual promotional material, as well as virtually attend the awards ceremony.

The award recipients may be expected to participate in seminars or presentations.

Awards ceremony

Award nominees and recipients will be acknowledged at a university event on Wednesday 22 November. All staff will be advised once the details are finalised.

Redemption of award

Only award recipients can redeem their Award (prizes cannot be delegated to another staff member).
The prize limits are non-negotiable and any additional costs are to be met by the staff member or their work area (with prior approval).
Any award recipient who is no longer employed at the time of the announcement of the awards will be presented with a Certificate of Recognition but they will not be entitled to an award prize.
Colleagues must be employed at the University in order to redeem their award.
Colleagues must also be employed at the University at the time of undertaking the redemption activity.
Redemptions must be approved and paid for by December the following year.

Ready to start a nomination?

To start your online application visit the VC’s Excellence Awards for Professional Staff nomination system
Click on the button “Start a new nomination”
Select the appropriate award type and category.
Complete Nominator and Nominee details.
The nominator will need to provide a team name, team representative and select other members of the team.
A team member may be defined as someone who has made a significant contribution.
Consult with members of the team prior to submission to ensure that team composition and contributions are accurately reflected.
Complete the nomination statement questions on the site.
For help writing a nomination, please refer to the guide to writing a nomination statement
Upload relevant attachments. Nominator can upload relevant attachments in support of the nomination such as images, diagrams or testimonials. Documentation should not exceed six (6) pages and must be provided in .pdf format.
Once submitted, the nominee will receive an email notification and is required to accept or decline the nomination, OR the referee will receive an email notification and is required to endorse or decline the nomination and provide a referee statement.
If a key stakeholder/customer/beneficiary of the nomination is external to Curtin, the referee can attach additional evidence or testimonials from the external contact.
Nominator will receive email confirmation that the team nomination has been accepted/endorsed and submitted.

START YOUR NOMINATION

Staff Portal

VC’s Excellence Awards for Professional Staff at Global Campuses

Accordion

2023 Awards Committee members

Ready to start a nomination?