How to create a successful nomination

The deadline for nominations for the NUS Wales and Scotland Awards is 19^th February at 5.00pm

The NUS awards get hundreds of entries, so in order for the judges to understand why you are worthy of winning the award - your nomination needs to stand out.

Here are some tips for making a successful nomination:

Utilise your whole staff and officer team

Quite often it comes down to one officer or staff member to submit nominations for the NUS Awards. To help spread the work you could look at the categories and criteria to decide which awards you could enter in one of your regular team meetings. Spend half an hour talking about why you should win those awards and create a set of notes to start from.

Follow the criteria

The criteria for each award are what the judges will use to compare the entries. The entries that have the best examples of meeting the criteria are the ones that will be shortlisted.

Proofread your entries

Grammatical errors and spelling mistakes can detract from what you are trying to say. Make sure someone else reads the nomination before you copy and paste it in to the submission form. The fifteen minutes it takes to proofread a document can make all the difference.

Make every sentence count

You have 1000 words to tell your stories and share your achievements. Be SMART with your entry but don’t worry about using fancy language. Try to communicate sincerely and personally.

Cite specific examples and give vivid descriptions

This doesn’t mean that you should just fill your nomination with adjectives. Instead try to give the judges a clear picture of what you have achieved. Make sure that you don’t repeat what you are saying needlessly.

Remember, the judges don’t know you

We ask a number of external judges to decide who the winners of the NUS Awards should be. These judges are experts in the areas they are judging but aren’t going to know a lot about individual unions.

Upload a photo

At the end of the nomination page you have the opportunity to upload a supporting document and a photograph. Upload a photo that you think reflects your nomination, and try to ensure that it is of good enough quality to use if we were to publicise your good work.

Write your nomination in a word document

Once it is complete, copy and paste it in to the nomination form and submit. This will save you from losing all of your work if the internet were to crash or if your computer froze.

Don’t wait until the last minute to enter.

The NUS staff members that administer these awards get very busy around the time of close of nominations, and if everyone leaves it until the last minute to enter it makes it harder to answer your queries or provide you with support. Think about your nomination in advance and submit it as soon as you are happy with it.

Don’t be afraid to use bullet points or subtitles

They can be a great way of displaying information, particularly lists, in a clear yet effective way, and subtitles help the reader follow the entry and draw their attention to key points.

Get someone else to nominate you

Remember, if you are entering an individual award you need to ensure you have someone else nominating you, this could be another student, student officer or member of staff at your institution.

If you have any other questions about the nomination process please don’t hesitate to get in touch on [email protected].