I’m nominating George for this award because I believe he has helped hold Newcastle University to account, on behalf of the student population, with his news reporting. He is in his second year as News Editor of The Courier, the student newspaper at Newcastle, which was awarded ‘Publication on the Year’ at the 2012 Guardian Student Media Awards.

George has committed the last two years of university to accountability journalism and in the last 12 months he has broken stories on the University’s inactivity in the aftermath of a student suicide, the University introducing new £200 ‘on-the-spot’ fines for noise complaints, spending £95,000 on a staff-only bike shed and the University shelving biometric scanning as a method of monitoring international student attendance.

In addition, he’s also done stories with the welfare of students at heart. He interviewed three friends, who six months earlier had lost their flatmate in a car crash, about how they had coped with grief and what they had learnt from her life. As part of Newcastle University Students’ Union’s Transgender Awareness Week, he interviewed a woman who had transitioned during her time at university as well as providing front page coverage of the NUS’ ‘Out in Sport’ study that looked at the culture of university sport and the LGBT community.

I’ve been George’s flatmate for all three years we have been at university and I see everyday how hard he works and just how much the work means to him. He’s used his extensive student media experience to get work experience at The Guardian, ITV News, The Huffington Post and an upcoming one at Sky News. We also do a radio show together on Tuesday nights which is a bit more relaxed and a departure from the more serious news stuff he usually does.

Here I’ll talk about how he used information and turned them into stories which have had a positive impact on the student population. With the student suicide story he talked to students involved in a steering group, which the University had set up after the death, who then revealed to him that any progress stalled after the Christmas break. The students felt really upset that the University wasn’t following through on suggestions about ways to better integrate international students and George used the platform of the paper to air these concerns and to make sure the suicide wasn’t forgotten and swept under the carpet by the University.

He was the first to break the news about the University introducing new ‘on-the-spot’ fines as a way of tackling noise complaints in the local residential community. They are incontestable and cost the house £200 and students were not notified by individual email about the change in policy. He only found out after stumbling on it whilst trawling through the University’s website and then set about interviewing the relevant administrator for an hour.

George also revealed how the University had dropped consideration for biometric scanning and were looking to implement a different student monitoring scheme in consultation with the Students’ Union. He interviewed John Hogan, who is the Registrar and Chief Operating Officer of the University, who met with the UK Border Agency about what monitoring policies would satisfy their criteria. After a half hour interview with Hogan, he also met with the Students’ Union’s Education Officer, and wrote an article that outlined the new proposed monitoring method as well as the dropping of biometric scanning.

He broke the story about the expensive cost of a bike shed the University was building. It’s a highly visible, multi-coloured structure that many students pass on their way to the library and, after an information request and conversation with the Estates department, he revealed that it was a staff-only bike shed. He also revealed it would be built using Dutch-style, double stacker shelving that meant each bike space cost in excess of £1,500. In a time where tuition fees had increased, he spoke to outraged students as well as Estates officials which helped bring to light what the University was spending it’s money on.

In April, he spoke with three flatmates of a girl who six months earlier had lost her life in a car crash. The interview was a double page spread in the paper and got an amazing response on Facebook amongst people who knew her with George getting messages of appreciation too. It was nearly 3,000 words long and he said it was one of the hardest things he has ever had to do because of the sensitivity and delicacy of it. He pulled an all-nighter on the lay-up and said he experimented with the storytelling of it a lot.

The Students’ Union held a Transgender Awareness Week and as part of it George interviewed the Transgender rep from the LGBT society as well as finding a student who had successfully transitioned. It’s a topic which isn’t widely discussed and is often misunderstood. The person he interviewed had been transitioning throughout their time at university and had completed the process after they graduated. The interview helped give a personal angle to the story and raised awareness of the issue as well as the events being held in the Students’ Union. He did another LGBT story when he did a front page on the NUS’ ‘Out in Sport’ report which looked at how the culture of university sport accommodated LGBT students. He spoke to the Students’ Union’s LGBT Officer, Athletic Union Officer and the University for their thoughts on the report and how they intended to make sure all such needs were accommodated for.

I also know that he’s had a significant impact on the people he’s worked with because of his experience, jovial personality and sheer number of hours he spends in the office. His positive impact on other people was reflected when we successfully got him elected as Editor of The Courier for next year during which he will also serve as a full-time Sabbatical Officer in the Students’ Union.