Teesside psychology team up for national prize

A psychology staff and student partnership from Teesside University is in the running for a prestigious national award.

The foursome have been shortlisted for the Guardian University Awards in the student experience category.

They are being recognised for their work in establishing a staff student partnership to co create the Student’s Academic Literacy Tool (SALT), a writing tool which addresses and helps with different aspects of academic writing.

The SALT team are Dr Sue Becker, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, MSc Health Psychology student Holly Shahverdi, third year BSc (hons) Psychology student Nadine Spence and psychology graduate Luke Kennedy.

They have already tasted national success, having won the JISC Summer of Student Innovation competition last year.

The Guardian University Awards celebrate the impact of work conducted by universities, with categories for research, business and digital innovation also featured.

Winners will be announced at a ceremony on 16 March.

Dr Becker believes the award nomination shows how far the SALT team has progressed since the initial idea. They have recently returned from Digifest16 in Birmingham where they have been testing their app.

She said: 'The team is going from strength to strength and it is fantastic to be nominated for such a high profile award.

‘This recognition will motivate us to continue to work to develop SALT and to try to inspire others to engage in partnership working.'

The SALT team will be posting regular updates on the project on twitter @SALTtool and on its Facebook page

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