Chemistry Student SHE Committee wins Vice-Chancellor’s award
The Chemistry Student Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Committee has won the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Health and Safety 2017.
Students Holly Foster, Nisha Pokar, Namrah Shahid and Stephanie Foster, and graduates Rebecca Lane and Rebecca Rose, received the award for their efforts to start up the School of Chemistry’s first student-led health and safety committee and promote shared ownership of health, safety and sustainability issues within the School.
The committee members were inspired to set up a SHE committee based on industry systems by their experiences during their industrial placement years. The committe recruited twenty-five students to discuss issues and deliver activities to encourage best practice and engage undergraduate students in taking collective ownership of health and safety issues.
Following the creation of the committe and their awareness-raising campaigns on chemical release/handling, the School saw a 50% reduction in chemical accidents/incidents involving undergraduate students in the last year.
Holly Foster, who chaired the committee, received a Salters’ Graduate Prize in recognition of her work to initiate the committee and enlist the involvement of her fellow students.
Professor Steve Marsden, Head of School, commented:
“I am extremely proud of the students for the initiative, maturity, perseverance and ingenuity they displayed. This has been yet another example of how Partnership working creates excellent outcomes for staff and students alike.”
I am extremely proud of the students for the initiative, maturity, perseverance and ingenuity they displayed. This has been yet another example of how Partnership working creates excellent outcomes for staff and students alike.
Committee member Namrah Shahid said:
“The team have worked ever so hard to establish the SHE committee, and I’m so proud of us all.
“To say that we have been bringing this to reality whilst doing our Masters and securing our degrees was rather challenging, so it’s really appreciated to be given recognition for our efforts.
“As the undergraduate School representative last year I remember our course representatives pitching the idea of this committee in our first Student-Staff Forum and it’s truly amazing to see, and be a part of, the idea taking its first steps to becoming a reality, then seeing it become established here in our School and now as an award winning initiative. I feel so proud to be a part of it!”
About the awards
The Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Health and Safety reward and celebrate exceptional inspiration, commitment and practice of staff and students in health and safety, and in wellbeing, at the University of Leeds.
Winners of The Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Health and Safety are chosen by the Vice-Chancellor for being the most inspiring entry of the year. Prize winners receive a £250 gift voucher.
