NDSA Student Award Scheme - What is it?
The NDSA Student Award Scheme
is an annual event aimed at providing a platform for winning students to present their projects to a curated panel and extend their professional network
Overview of Proposal
The NDSA Committee have agreed to discontinue the £300 one off cash prize traditionally handed out annually to a student at UoN & NTU each year, replacing it instead with an annual event centred around winning students, chosen from a Values & Principles based selection criteria.
The initiative will take the format of a set of presentations of winning projects by the students, accompanied by local, regional or national intra-industry professionals whose expertise and areas of research interests have clear cross overs with the themes within the winning projects.
The NDSA intend to build up a curated panel, to whom the students will present, with the aim of the panel to inject highly focused professional feedback to the students.
In addition to a panel comprised of professionals and academics with overlapping relatable backgrounds, the invited attendees will be built up from an extended group of persons with diverse portfolios. Professionals practicing in the disciplines of Urbanism, Planning and Architecture will be encouraged to offer experienced insights from their respective fields of expertise.
The presentations are to be followed by a period of networking, affording the students the opportunity to meet with and speak to the industry wide professionals invited to the event.
It is the hope of the NDSA that in bringing together the students at the conclusion of their studies, professionals from complementing disciplines will provide positive, progressive feedback on the projects & in doing so the students will obtain an extended avenue of professional advice and support.
It is this platform of professional and academic excellence that the NDSA wish to take forward as its new annual awards event.
The NDSA also view this as an opportunity for the promotion of a Values & Principles based approach. Student work will be selected based upon a criteria drawn up by the Committee that reflect the issues of today, such as environmental disaster, construction knowledge, equity, spatial justice and other practice led considerations.