Staffordshire University Students' Union has been victorious at the NUS Awards.
The Students' Union won the Endsleigh Innovation Award for its Money Doctors online tool as well as seeing a former officer awarded for excellence too.
Money Doctors' online tool, which helps students identify what money they're entitled to, went up against stiff competition, but won national recognition at the NUS Awards. The awards are part of the Students' Unions 2012 conference, a national conference for officers and staff to network and share best practice.
Receiving the award, the Union's general manager Ken Sankson gave praise to staff member Rachel Arulanantham, whose insight and vision made this possible, and Staffs graduate Rich Bishop who built the online tool.
The Union also enjoyed extra success with its former President Paul Chapman winning staff member of the year. Since leaving Staffs in 2003, Paul has forged great success working for Birmingham City Students' Union. Great work Chappy!
President Jamie Robertson said: "It's a great day for Staffs and all our staff and officers should be proud of their achievements. Winning an award like this puts Staffs on the map and means we can show off all the great things we do to a wider audience.
"The Union works tirelessly for the benefit of students and this recognition is well deserved."
Rich Bishop, whose technology business
The Rich Media Company was commissioned to build the tool for the Students' Union, said he was over the moon.
"It's great to hear about Money Doctors' success. I've always enjoyed working closely with the Students' Union, before and after I graduated, and knowing that a tool I built for them has received national recognition is just the icing on the cake," he said.
Here's a video of one of the NUS Award judges, Spotify managing director Chris Maples, explaining why Staffs deserved the award.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&client=mv-google&v=SPmzCQfSRI0&nomobile=1