The University of Western Australia has a continual roll call of awards, scholarships and prizes presented to staff and students.

To recognise these achievements, an article is published on the UWA news page on the website and in UWA Forward on the first week of every month. If you know of great awards or achievements across the University please email [email protected]

Name: ACICIS Consortium
Achievement: The Australian Consortium for ‘In-Country’ Indonesian Studies (ACICIS) team have won an IEAA Excellence Award for Innovation in International Education. Each year, IEAA conducts its International Education Excellence Awards to recognise good practice and celebrate the outstanding achievements of individuals and teams contributing to Australia’s reputation for quality and innovation in international education.

Name: Jay Jay Jegathesan, HDR Coordinator, Graduate Research School 
Achievement: Mr Jegathesan won the $2,500 Best Documentary award at the ReelOzInd! Australia-Indonesia Short Film Festival. He wrote, produced and narrated the film Pacing the Pool which was directed by Radheya Jegathesan. The documentary focuses on the life of Richard Pace who underwent more than 100 operations in his life. Hydrotherapy at Beatty Park helped him stay on his feet and overcome a multitude of physical and mental challenges.

Name: Emily Song, UWA School of Design
Achievement: Emily Song has been announced as the recipient of two awards in the recent Lester Prize at The Art Gallery of Western Australia. Emily was awarded the Tony Fini Artist Prize and the Minderoo Spirit Prize for 饺子 (Dumplings), 2021, ballpoint pen on paper, an incredible achievement for a young artist. The Lester Prize exhibition is on view at AGWA until November 29.

Name: Melissa Clements, UWA School of Design
Achievement: UWA History of Art student Melissa Clements received the Overall Open award at the 2021 City of South Perth Emerging Artist Award for her oil on panel ‘Shaun: Warda Kadak, Becoming’. Melissa was also shortlisted as a finalist in this year’s exhibition from over 750 entries nationwide. UWA Fine Arts students James Dudding and Asha Combes were also shortlisted finalists in this year’s Prize.

Image: Prize winning artwork - ‘Shaun: Warda Kadak, Becoming’ by Melissa Clements (left) and 饺子 (Dumplings) by Emily Song (right).

Name: UDLA Collaborator School of Indigenous Studies, UWA
Achievement: Bilya Marlee by UDLA won the Landscape Architecture Award for Health and Education Landscape at the 2021 National Landscape Architecture Awards. The jury said the cultural narrative “a place of learning by the river” is an articulation of the beauty and balance found within this landscape, providing a forum for further learning as well as an example of what can be discovered if we allow ourselves to be a part of the landscape. By balancing the value of the building and the landscape, the development of Bilya Marlee – the UWA’s new School of Indigenous Studies – has followed an Indigenous method of design. 

Name: Fleuranne Brockway, Bachelor of Music in Classical Vocal Performance, UWA
Achievement: Mezzo-soprano Fleuranne Brockway has been awarded the Dame Heather Begg Memorial Award, a $25,000 grant established by Dame Heather Begg’s estate and provided through Melba Opera Trust. In 2017, Fleuranne became a Wesfarmers Young Artists with WA Opera and was awarded a scholarship with Melba Opera Trust in 2018. In the same year she was the recipient of the Australian International Opera Awards Scholarship and the winner of the German Australian Opera Grant. She relocated to London for studies at the Royal College of Music before moving to Germany in 2019 to take up a position at the Hessisches Staatstheater, Wiesbaden where she remains a member of the principal ensemble.

Image: Mezzo-soprano Fleuranne Brockway.

Name: International Student Support Team
Achievement: The Team won the 2021 UWA Safer Communities Award for their project, Friendship Friday, which helped to combat homesickness and loneliness for many international students in Perth who have been cut off from their families back home due to COVID-19 related border closures. Friendship Friday is a program of fun and resilience building events which helped international students to form new connections and learn new skills to help them cope through these difficult times.