On the day that this year’ GCSE results were announced I was listening to the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast show and heard Sara Cox talking about the rewards parents were using to encourage their children to work hard at school do their revision and achieve good grades.
The incentives on offer ranged from tickets to rock festivals and holidays to straight forward cash.
Nothing like this happened in my day, but times change, I suppose.
Then I realised that I am part of the prize for academic success culture. During the day, I am an HR professional with Abeceder.com. Since the company was launched 14 years ago we have sponsored a prize at Leeds University Business School for the outstanding international student on the MA in Human Resource Management course.
International students make up a large proportion of the cohort of people studying at the Business School each year and make a huge contribution to the economy and culture of the City of Leeds.
We are not alone in making an award at a university, but, why do it?
Well two reasons, firstly when I was studying for my own Masters the university where I studied had corridors lined with photographs of the winners of prizes for accountancy, logistics, strategy etc, but no pictures of anyone winning a prize for doing well on the HR course, because there wasn’t a prize. I decided that if it wasn’t possible to win a prize then I should award one instead.
The other reason is much more practical, with increasing numbers of people going to university and then continuing to do post-graduate courses it becomes more and more difficult for employers to use the qualifications to differentiate between candidates. Being the winner of a prize makes it possible for an application to stand-out in the crowd.
So, offering the prize makes me feel good, it gives the student the opportunity to enhance their CV and the prospective employer the opportunity to differentiate between candidates.
One of the other organisations in Leeds that offers a student prize is the Henry Moore Institute, well they actually offer several, for some this year’s submission date has passed, but it is still possible to submit an entry for two prizes.
As part of the Institute’s research programme, in 2017 two prizes are being awarded for extended pieces of writing on contemporary, modern or historical sculpture.
So, if you are writing a dissertation for a BA or MA in any discipline there might be an opportunity to win a bit of cash here. £200 for the BA Dissertation winner and £300 for the MA Dissertation.
Both winners will also receive:
- Henry Moore Institute selected publications to the cover price value of £50.
- Free entry to all Henry Moore Institute conferences for one year.
- Publication of dissertation abstracts in the Henry Moore Institute newsletter.
- Bound copies of dissertations published and entered into the Henry Moore Institute Research Library.
All the details are available from the Henry Moore Institute website.
Make sure that you get your entry in by the closing date 15th September 2017.
During the day Michael Millward is a HR professional