2012 news learmount pilkingtonprize

Recognising excellence in teaching

11 July 2012

The article at a glance

Dr Simon Learmount is awarded the 2012 Cambridge Pilkington Teaching Prize Cambridge Judge Business School is pleased to congratulate Dr Simon Learmount, …

Dr Simon Learmount is awarded the 2012 Cambridge Pilkington Teaching Prize

Dr Simon Leamount accepts the Pilkington Prize from the Vice-ChancellorCambridge Judge Business School is pleased to congratulate Dr Simon Learmount, Director of the Cambridge Executive MBA programme, on winning the 2012 Cambridge Pilkington Teaching Prize.

Established by Sir Alastair Pilkington in 1994, the annual award gives recognition to 12 individuals across the University who have pioneered new methods of learning, worked outstandingly on outreach programmes, or who have shown an incredible capacity to connect with or have aspired students to achieve.

The prize, which consists of a £1,000 donation from the trustees of the Cambridge Foundation, was awarded at a ceremony hosted by Downing College on Tuesday 26 June.

Dr Learmount was recognised for his contributions to developing the MBA and Executive MBA programmes, as well as his teaching of Management Practice and Corporate Governance at the business school.

Upon receiving the prize Dr Learmount commented:

“It is a real honour to receive this award. However, it does seem a little unfair that it is awarded to me as an individual – as all of the contributions that I have made, both in the classroom and in programme development at Cambridge Judge Business School, have only been possible with the help of many many others. The highly participative classroom teaching that I do is only effective with significant support of programme co-ordinators, teaching assistants, IT and AV staff, and even our custodians who need to set up rooms appropriately. And the programme and curriculum design work that I am involved with is also only possible with the cooperation of a large team – which nowadays often spans departmental and even University boundaries.

So, in accepting the award, I want to make sure that the work of all these people, too numerous to name, is properly recognised – without them there really would be no teaching at all, let alone the extremely high standards of teaching that Cambridge Judge Business School and the University of Cambridge are universally recognised for. Special thanks of course go to everyone on the Executive MBA team, as well as the fantastic ‘pioneering’ students, who have done so much to help create such an outstanding programme in a very short space of time.”