St Andrews students sweep the boards

Wednesday 30 September 2015

UG-Awards-mainbody

University of St Andrews students have swept the boards at the 2015 Undergraduate Awards, often referred to as the “Junior Nobel Prize”.

Cited as the ultimate champion of high-potential undergraduates, the Awards is the world’s largest academic awards programme, recognising excellent research and original work across the sciences, humanities, business and the creative arts.

The Undergraduate Awards (UA) 2015 programme received 5117 submissions from undergraduates in 255 universities across 39 countries.

St Andrews students won four of the 25 categories, more than any other university. The winners are:

  • Aleksejs Sazonovs, for the Computer Sciences category;
  • Eilidh Johnston, for the Mathematics & Physics category;
  • Conor MacDonald, for the Medical Sciences category;
  • Vincent Förster, for the Politics & International Relations category.

A further 24 St Andrews students were recognised as Highly Commended Entrants, meaning their papers were ranked in the top 10 per cent of all submissions. Overall, St Andrews ranked in the top five for its student performance in the 2015 UA programme worldwide.

Vice-Principal (Proctor) Professor Lorna Milne said: “This is another tremendous achievement by our undergraduates as well as those who teach and support them.

“Competition for these awards involves the very best from around the world: to win in four categories and have 24 commendations is an outstanding result.”

UA’s Executive Director Louise Hodgson said: “This is a fantastic achievement for St Andrews and its undergraduates.

“Only the very top students from each university can submit their coursework, and the Undergraduate Awards identifies the very best of the best. With over 5000 submissions from so many universities this year, the competition was extremely tough.”


Notes to news editors

Winners and Highly Commended Entrants have been invited to receive their Gold Medals and meet their fellow awardees at the annual UA Global Summit taking place in Dublin, Ireland, on 10-13 November. The Summit will be addressed by the likes of philosopher AC Grayling, physicist Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, photographer Giles Dudley, human genome sequencer Craig Venter, and the world’s youngest professor Dr Alia Sabur, among many more speakers and facilitators.

About The Undergraduate Awards

The Undergraduate Awards (UA) is the world’s largest academic awards programme, recognising innovation and excellence at undergraduate level. Cited as the ultimate champion for high-potential undergraduates, UA identifies leading creative thinkers through their undergraduate coursework and provides top-performing students with the support, network and opportunities they require to raise their profiles and further their career paths.

Issued by the University of St Andrews Communications Office, contactable on 01334 467310 or [email protected].


Category Awards

Related topics

Share this story