‘Inspiring’ Rhondda woman is named Lecturer of the Year

A Coleg y Cymoedd Electronics and Engineering tutor has scooped the ColegauCymru Research Student of the Year award at a recent ceremony at Cardiff City Hall.

Nicola Regan from Cardiff was nominated for the award for achieving the highest graded research dissertation in her cohort on the MA Leadership and Management, a prestigious course awarded by the University of South Wales and part funded by ColegauCymru.

Nicola completed her dissertation on Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship and how this can be embedded into the culture and curriculum of the college. This included a lot of research in the interesting and sensitive topic of sustainability in education and the workplace, interviewing colleagues and people in other colleges and the private sector.

Nicola juggled the MA programme and her teaching post around starting a family. The programme should have taken three years via blended learning, but Nicola took a year out for maternity leave before continuing her studies via weekend tutorials and online contact with her tutor. Nicola’s four year old daughter even joined her in receiving her award at the ceremony.

“The course took a lot of hard work but I really enjoyed it. I have learnt so much and it has been really beneficial to my teaching. I would recommend people to do it. I still want to keep learning, the MA has inspired me to keep going forward!”

Nicola, who has worked for the college for thirteen years, was also required to deliver a presentation summarising her dissertation at a conference at the University of South Wales, demonstrating best practice to future students on this professional course.

Judith Evans, Principal of Coleg y Cymoedd said: “Nicola is an excellent example of how motivated our staff are to continue their professional development and therefore deliver the best quality teaching to our learners. Nicola’s ability to complete her studies to such a high standard around the commitments of work and family are really inspiring. She thoroughly deserves this award for all of her hard work.”

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