29 May 2018
The University of Edinburgh Business School used this year’s school forum as the platform for the launch of the first ever UEBS award for Excellence in Doctoral Supervision. Designed as a way to reward excellent supervisory services, the nominees were selected from the current cohort of academic staff who have one or more PhD students under their supervision.
Votes were cast through an online ballot, with a chance for people to expand on their nominations and demonstrate why they felt their nominee should win. The feedback received was diverse and illuminating, highlighting all the elements that make our PhD programme so popular. Comments included examples of inspirational leadership, insightful feedback, building a stimulating intellectual environment, creating research opportunities and giving access to exciting research pathways.
The winner of the 2017/18 award was Professor Paolo Quattrone. A Professor, Co-Director of the Centre for Accounting and Society (CAS) and Associate Fellow at Said Business School, Paolo has supervised multiple PhD students and he received glowing praise for the creation of a collaborative, comprehensive and cutting edge research environment. Unable to accept the award in person, he sent former student and current colleague Marian Gatzweiler to receive it in his absence, thanking his students for making his supervisory experience so enjoyable.
In his acceptance speech, he said the following:
It is a great honour to receive such a prize and I would like to thank Neil and those who have nominated me for making this possible. I think I should share it with all of my PhD students as it is mostly because of them if both their and my experience has been great. As far as I am concerned, I can only paraphrase what Gioacchino Rossini, the Sicilian composer, once said about the Damnation of Faust: there are many nice and bright students around [he was talking of music works], the pity is that normally those who are nice are not bright and those that are bright are not nice. I have been lucky enough of having them BOTH nice and bright! It is only the combination of integrity, honesty, curiosity, passion and search for purpose which makes academia great. I hope the institution will live up to this standard. Thank you!
The inaugural award was a great success and we are excited for what future years will bring in building on the school’s capacity to grow an engaging, robust supervisory model that will inspire students and staff alike!