Teaching Heroes must be someone who taught you while you were registered as a student (undergraduate or postgraduate) in higher education and may include, for example, librarians, supervisors, tutors, instructors, and lecturers.
Anyone registered as a student (undergraduate or postgraduate) in an Irish higher education institution.
You can only submit a nomination if you are currently registered as a student in Irish higher education.
Yes, provided you are also currently registered as a student in higher education. You can only nominate a Teaching Hero who taught you while you were registered as a student in higher education.
Yes, as long as you are currently registered as a student in higher education AND you are nominating someone who taught while you were a registered student in higher education.
Yes, as long as you are currently registered as a student in higher education AND you are nominating someone who taught while you were a registered student in higher education.
We ask that each student only submit one nomination – so make it count!
It is not possible for a class/group to make a collective nomination. The nomination process is based on individual students’ learning experiences and works through individual nomination forms. However, there is no limit on the number of students in a class/group who can nominate the same person.
Yes, as long as you are currently registered as a student in higher education AND you are nominating someone who taught while you were a registered student in higher education.
Confidentiality
No, this information is not shared with Teaching Heroes.
Only your students’ union or student representatives and the National Forum have access to nominations.
Research has shown that class size can influence the impact a teacher has on students. To take account of this the National Forum applies a weighting scale depending on the class size.
Data from the nomination form will be used by the National Forum to build a picture of how students define excellence in teaching and whether or not there are differences depending on student gender or age. Students will have the option to choose not to declare their gender and/or age.
Technical
Please contact the National Forum Student Success team on studentsuccess@teachingandlearning.ie
Yes. The software used to host the nomination form will not save your details from an unfinished session so it is important to fill and submit the form in one sitting.
When you are finished entering your data please click the next button at the bottom of the page. You will be brought to a thank you page. This is your confirmation that a nomination has been submitted.
If you didn’t complete your nomination in one session, you must start over. The software used to host the nomination form will not save your details from an unfinished session.
Staff FAQs
The Teaching Hero Awards are national, student-led awards, and the nomination process is being actively promoted by the Union of Students in Ireland, other students’ unions, and the National Forum student associates. It would be appreciated if you could assist this process by supporting their promotion campaigns. As the Teaching Hero Awards are student-led, it would not be appropriate to direct or encourage students to vote for any particular individual.
On the nomination form, students are given the following guidance: Tell us about your higher education Teaching Hero in 150 words or less. Don’t just tell us that your Teaching Hero was great… tell us why. Nominations that only say ‘She was great!’ don’t give us enough information about your Teaching Hero.
Given the challenges faced by both students and all those who teach this year, we will work in partnership with Students’ Unions / student representatives and the National Forum student associates to determine how best to acknowledge and recognise all those nominated as Teaching Heroes in a meaningful way. We will also work with individual HEIs to agree how best they would like the nominated Teaching Heroes in their institution to be recognised. For those institutions that have existing student-led awards we will work together with you to see how best to proceed.
The Teaching Hero Awards are distinct as they are national, student-led awards. They aim to complement the existing teaching award systems that are in place institutionally and regionally, and they will help the sector to explore in diverse detail the ways in which students understand and experience excellent teaching within their contexts and across different disciplines.
We are aware that some institutions may have their own student-nominated teaching and learning awards. There will be an opportunity to include the nominees that have been identified through these student-led institutional processes in this national call for Teaching Heroes for your institution, should the nominees be happy to receive national recognition. Once all nominations have been received and all students given an opportunity to take part through the national open call, we will work with individual HEIs and Students’ Unions to agree how best they would like the nominated Teaching Heroes in their institution to be recognised. For those institutions that have existing student-led awards we will work together with you to see how best to proceed.
