How students earn the Award
To earn the Imperial Award, students must prepare a reflective submission which will be assessed by an Imperial Award assessor against the Imperial Award criteria.
The submission must make a claim arguing that the student's experiences have led to their transformation into a person who has the Imperial Award attributes. The key to the Award is the student’s own ability to see the transformative impact of their own experiences, not the type or volume of activities that they engage in.
Students can attempt one, two or three streams at any time. Students are advised to attempt one stream first and receive feedback from the assessors before attempting additional streams. Gaining feedback on their first attempt can benefit subsequent attempts, especially as students usually go through at least one re-submission before meeting the criteria.
Click on the headings below to find out about each stage of the award.
Stages of the Imperial Award
Student registration
To participate, students register online using the Imperial Award system. When they do so, they must tell us their Personal Tutor’s name. After they have registered an email is sent to the Personal Tutor to let them know their student has signed up, the email will contain information about how to access the Imperial Award system. There is no risk from signing up, only if a student is successful will Registry be informed. The Imperial Award system was developed and is mantained by Imperial College Union.
The Imperial Award team offer workshops to help students get up to speed however students will expect that their Personal Tutor have some knowledge of the Award.
Document activities and experiences
Registration gives your tutee access to a private online portfolio. There, they can add entries for all of their activities (e.g. being a student representative, participating in a society) and list the experiences gained, and their reflections, from each activity. For example, being a student rep would be an activity which would lead to experiences of attending formal department meetings; consulting with other students about problems; and working on Campaigns with the student union.
For more information on what activities and experiences to encourage your tutees to record, see the Student Guidance pack (PDF).
Map and evidence
Using their online portfolio, students can decide which of their experiences are likely to demonstrate that they are developing the Award attributes. Their online portfolio allows them to select attributes to link to their experiences. This linking of attributes to experiences is what we mean by 'mapping'.
Their portfolio of activities, experiences and attributes automatically updates in a matrix for the student, called My Imperial Award. We have designed a page to make it easy for Personal Tutors to see this overview for all their registered tutees. You can see an example of what this 'matrix' looks like in the Student Guidance pack (PDF).
When one of your students has registered for the Award you can view this matrix by logging in to the Imperial Award system.
Reflection
The pilot scheme showed that this is alien to most students, so we have created a short Reflection guide (PDF) that students should use; you may also wish to refer to this guide when giving feedback and advice.
Preparing a reflective submission
Personal Tutors do not assess their tutee’s submissions, nor do they verify nor sign-off. But Personal Tutors can be invaluable at giving feedback on drafts.
To achieve each Imperial Award stream, students need to produce reflective submissions of one of three types: written, video or multimedia. Their submission must demonstrate how they meet the Imperial Award criteria in relation to each of the four attributes within that stream. We tend to advise that students start with a single stream, to try their hand at demonstrating reflective thinking before attempting further streams.
Students are encouraged to use their portfolio and the Reflection guide (PDF) before they start drafting their submissions. Further information on the submission methods can be found on the submission information page.
Assessment by Award assessors
Once your student has prepared their reflective submission for a particular stream, they submit it online via the Imperial Award system. The assessor will then determine whether the statement has met the Award criteria. You can see the assessment criteria in the Student Guidance pack (PDF).
Personal Tutors do not have a role in the assesment process, but can volunteer to join the College-level Imperial Award assessor pool.
The assessors are a mix of academic and non-academic staff. Written feedback, along with the assessment outcome, from the assesor panel is given to the students; they may wish to discuss this feedback with you.
Feedback
As a Personal Tutor, your role includes giving feedback and advice on personal development to all of your tutees, whether they are registered for the Award or not.
A student participating in the Imperial Award can recieve feedback in multiple ways:
- During Imperial College Union workshops
- From their peers
- From the Assessors
- From you, their Personal tutor
Graduation
Your tutee’s graduation transcript will note any successes on the Award (but will not mention any unsuccessful attempts). Even if the full three streams are not completed, your tutee will receive recognition for any streams completed.
Your first year students may register for the Award but cannot submit until their second year.
Your final year students should complete and submit all of their Award statements well before the end of their final year to ensure time to complete all of the processes if they need to resubmit any statements.
The Award is earned, not won. All of your tutees could attempt at least one stream.