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Alliance Awards 2025

The Alliance Awards are returning for their sixth year, this time hosted by the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield! This year, we’re changing things up with some new awards categories – check them out below.

The Alliance Awards are our chance to celebrate the hard work and dedication of individuals and teams from across our membership. As always, we’ll be recognising people or teams for their outstanding contributions to professional and technical education – but this year things look a little different.

We’re introducing brand new awards categories. Still sticking to the themes of collaboration, integrity, professionalism, innovation and fun, we’ve expanded our awards to include specific areas of work happening at universities. See the new categories with their descriptions further down the page!

Nominations open: 00:01, 3 March 2025

Nominations close: 23:59, 17 April 2025

SUBMIT A NOMINATION HERE

See the Alliance Awards nomination guide, for guidance on making your nomination and to read the criteria each judge will use to select a winner.

Awards ceremony: Thursday 18 September 2025

The winners will be announced at the Alliance Awards evening on 18 September. Hosted by the University of Hertfordshire, the evening of celebration will include guest speakers, entertainment and dinner. 

Alliance Awards categories 2025

Industry Partnerships Award

Awarded for innovative university partnerships, either with industry or with public sector organisations 

Teaching Innovation Award

Awarded for innovative teaching practices. 

Research and Innovation Impact Award

Awarded for research and innovation which has had a tangible impact on the world around us. 

Local Impact Award sponsored by UCAS

Awarded for work which has had a positive impact on a university’s local or regional community. 

Heroes Award

Awarded to an individual or team who have delivered initiatives to help their institutions, staff and students to thrive.   

Equity and Opportunity Award sponsored by Duolingo English Test

Awarded to an individual or team who has developed impactful initiatives to improve diversity, equity and opportunity at their institution.   

Global Impact Award

Awarded for international work which has had a positive impact globally. We encourage nominations that align with the Sustainable Development Goals. 

DTA Alumni Award sponsored by DTA

For the DTA alumnus who has demonstrated their commitment during and beyond their PhD to one of the following UA strategic pillars: 1) Innovation: taking an innovative approach and outlook to their doctoral studies and career pathways, and 2) Community: contributing to a sense of community during and/or beyond their PhD through supporting peers and local or global communities.

Lifetime Achievement Award

For the individual who has delivered a lifetime of exceptional service to their institution, students and to the higher education sector as a whole.  

With thanks to our sponsors:

The Duolingo English Test is an innovative and accessible English proficiency assessment for today’s international students and institutions. The test is available online, on-demand and accessible from anywhere
UCAS is an independent charity which provides a variety of tools and resources to support hundreds of thousands of students to take their next steps into university, college and apprenticeships. Their mission is to widen access to education and career pathways, ensuring every young person has the opportunity to pursue higher education and their career aspirations.
The Doctoral Training Alliance (DTA) is an enhanced doctoral training programme providing a dedicated national network for doctoral researchers and their supervisors together with research and professional skills training opportunities to support career development both within and beyond academia. 
TechnologyOne is a global Software as a Service (SaaS) company. Our enterprise SaaS solution transforms business and makes life simple for universities by providing powerful, deeply integrated enterprise software that is incredibly easy to use.