How to create a successful nomination
The deadline for nominations for the NUS Awards is Monday 18 May at 5.00pm.
If you want your nomination considered in the NUS Wales and NUS Scotland awards you must get it in by February 11 2015 at 5pm.
The NUS awards get hundreds of entries every year, here are some tips on getting your nomination to stand out:
Start your nomination now
Whilst May seems far off, there are loads of other events that you will be focusing on before then, not to mention the General Election and your students’ unions elections. If you get started with your nomination now, you will have plenty of time to complete the form. If you want to get started but aren’t sure you’ll have everything you need to finish off your nomination, you can always save it part way through and come back to it later.
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 different categories and criteria together to decide which awards you are thinking of entering. This year you can save your nomination form and come back to it later so you can even share filling out the form between more than one of you; just make sure you keep the email link safe and keep a backup of all your content.
Follow the criteria
Make sure that you answer the questions being asked on the nomination form, as this is what the judges will use when looking at the nomination. Use these criteria to make sure that you are applying for the most relevant award too. The judges will also look at the Quality Mark for students’ unions when considering your nomination, further information on this can be found at http://qualitystudentsunions.org.uk/union.
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 submit it. You can always write it in a word document first and then copy and paste it into the form once it’s been checked.
Give specific examples
Try and give the judges a clear picture of what you have achieved by giving them some in depth examples. Try not to repeat similar examples or enter the same project or work in a different award – use the criteria to help you choose the best award to enter. This year you can also look back through past entries to help you understand successful applications.
Use your supporting documents
Make sure you enter the links to any online supporting materials that you may have in the section on the form. This could be anything from a video on YouTube or a link to some photos on Twitter. We may use this material in promotional materials for the NUS Awards 2015 – so make sure you have permission to use it!