Teaching

The Recognising and Advancing Teaching Excellence Awards 2020

We are delighted to announce that our Programme Director, Damyan Kachulski, has been awarded the 2020 RATE (The Recognising and Advancing Teaching Excellence) Awards for ‘Best Tutor’ and for ‘Outstanding Support’ at the RATE Awards ceremony in the University of Stirling. The Stirling Students’ Union VP Education, Emmy Smith, announced the awards at an online ceremony in April 2020.

The Students’ Union received over 1,300 nominations for 420 academic and professional staff. Those 1,300+ nominations show that our students value the support that they are given by professional and academic staff, as well as the time that they dedicate to students. Engaging students in course material, through innovative lecture styles, was found to be at the heart of good practice for our students. Student nominations are used to inform the University about what you, as a student body, consider to be the best methods of teaching. They are also used to identify any necessary improvements in learning and teaching at the University. RATE is intended to empower students to be co-creators in their learning and teaching experience through feeding back about their learning experience at Stirling. More about the awards could be found here.

The Recognising and Advancing Teaching Excellence Awards 2020 Online Ceremony

Damyan’s dedication and commitment to improving the student experience of his students are evident from the nominations he received this year:

“Just an absolute star overall. Coming into university and not knowing your place, being nervous about a lot of stuff, Damyan was a welcoming face and made all students feel at ease. On top of engaging lectures and seminars Damyan always takes an interest in each individual students and brings out motivation in even the least motivated people. He takes time to give you good feedback and respects you as a student, and most importantly, takes you seriously no matter what questions or doubts you have. I nominate Damyan because even after two years of not having him as my teacher he still has a lasting impact and showed me what good staff looks like. “
“Excellence is a word that defines the best and i think this word itself defines Mr Kachulski. He¿s the best in the program and i wish more teachers were like him. “
“When damyan saw that I had a problem, he asked me to say after class and really understood what was going on. He asked me many times after this how I felt and recommended me the support services and the hub. He checked in on me many times. This was so important to me. I will never miss a class with him and I am always happy to see him. He knows a lot and he is sometimes tough but fair with his students. “
“I cannot wait to go to Damyan’s classes. He taught me how to write, how to think. He knows everything about every question. He also replies to us immediately when we email. He looks for us and gives us internship opportunities if they are relevant for us. His slides are amazing and he is not scary. HE is kind, nice person. He knows how to teach and make us listen. “
“Damyan’s lectures are outstanding. Before we have essays due, his lectures are structured like an essay and before we have a case study due, his lectures resemble a case study. He gives us the new information in the formats we are unfamiliar with, so that we can get used to it. He stops and makes remarks to explain why he did what he did. It’s not just the module instructions we read with him, he personally shows us how to succeed! He also teaches us how to get the essence of the journal articles in 15 min. He doesn’t lecture from the front desk, but walks around us, giving us the microphone to contribute to the lecture. He is so knowledgeable, but often leads us to reaching the answers to our questions by ourselves. He knows all of our names and this makes us participate in class.”
“Damyan introduced us to so many online resources, helped us prepare our portfolios and websites. He is devoted to the students and made us work harder than we thought we could. He is a leader and gives of himself to his students and we can see it. The best thing is that nothing is impossible in his opinion and he gave us the confidence to believe in us. As a result, we have managed to achieve great results. His theoretical courses are great and his practical tasks helped us. He is very inspirational and the best lecturer.”
“Although Damyan doesn’t teach me anymore, I emailed him for a recommendation for postgraduate study. He gave me an amazing recommendation, but unfortunately I didn’t get in. When I told him, he encouraged me not to give us and said that not getting in a good school is not an option. He gave me other suggestions and I applied. He wrote 8 other recommendations for me until I got accepted to do a Master degree. He was so proud of me. I will be grateful for ever. He is the best tutor and the most supportive person ever. “
“Damyan is a great tutor. He is knowledgeable and has an engaging teaching style, but he also always makes sure we are prepared for the real world. I won’t foeget how he told us about how what we do here has an impact on our future. He brings us to the BBC for trainings. He always talks to us about how we can apply what we learn in the real world. It is a pleasure to study under him. He gave me skills I never thought I’d have, especially presentation skills because I am extremely shy. I’ll remember him for ever”
“Damyam is always willing to listen, always asks us how we are and waits to hear the answer. He don’ts give us the answers to our questions, but makes us come to the answers by questions he starts asking us and tasks he gives us to do. He structures is lectures very well with main points at the beginning and at the end like an essay. He asks where we’re from and gives us relevant examples from our places and not just Scotland. He brings us to employers to practice and helps us apply to work experiences. He always says to us colleagues, let’s work together and he means it. He is the best and includes everybody no matter who they are. “
“Apart form being fantastic lecturer, he sends job offers and work experiences to us. He encourages us to apply and work while studying and he helped me with interview skills and CV writing. He gave me a recommendation. I cannot thank him enough for everything that he has taught me and done for all of us. He is positive, smart and passionate which makes us passionate about journalism. He always sends us things to do and suggest where to go and learn more outside of the class. He makes us want to go to class. “
“Damyan is the best tutor. He teaches journalism as if it’s the best subject ever. He really loves what he does and loves us. Although he is tough, he always would email you an internship which he wants you to apply to. He checked my CV, encouraged me to apply, helped me apply for the job and I got it. He genuinely cares for us and you can see it in his eyes how proud he is when we do well. He is so encouraging that I feel that I should never disappoint him because he invests so much in us. He is fantastic and teaches us how to be independent and successful.”
“Damyan is knowledgeable, kind and passionate. He can make any subject interesting with his slides and passion. He makes everything sound so easy and then shows us how to do it. When he saw that I couldn’t read journal articles, he taught me how t oread them in 15 min looking for main points. He took the time to get to know me and others and always helps us improve. He encourages me to be the best and I listen to him because he genuinely cares.”
“I nominate Damyan. He made my student experience better because of his positive work attitude. He is gentle and calm, has great attention to detail and enthusiasm. He is very serious in his work. More importantly, because he makes international students feel at home in the University of Stirling. When I am in his class, I feel happy and excited. Because he is so humorous. His pronunciation is so clear so I can understand him easily. Besides, I quite love his presentations because the slides he makes are perfect! After class,he often talks with students to answer their questions. He is so patient with students.Besides these, he also shows his kindness when solving our difficulties in life. He will not feel tired to help students any time,even in the weekend even he is very sick. I appreciate what he has done for his students.I nominate Damyan again and again.”
“He is a kind person who help us a lot.I am an international student from BIGC.When we arrived at the campus, he led us to look around the campus as a guide patiently. After we started our classes, he also listened to our advises, and organized lots of activities for us.Our members of group are all thankful and happy that we can meet him. “
“To care about your students and want them to excel is something many teachers lack. They just want to do there job and not do it because they want to make a difference but to make a days living but this man, genuinely cares about his students. He wants them to do well because he wants them to show their true potential and this is a quality that only one of the best tutors have. Hence-forth, this is why he deserves the award. “
“I nominate Damyan.He made my student experience better because of his positive work attitude. It is our first time to go to University of Stirling. So we had a lots of problems to solve. He as a advisor, never feel tired of helping us. He is very serious in his work. He always answers oue questions till night after working hours. Beside, he is a great tutor. He use interesting App in his classes which leads a relaxed teaching. After class,he often talks with students to answer their questions. He is so patient with students. I appreciate what he has done for his students.I nominate Damyan.”
“Damyan, who is the first tutor I met in campus, always being gentle and patient during teaching. As a short term exchange programme leader, he’s very hardworking and serious in helping us to adapt new environment quickly, for example, he upload our courses’ materials every evening, which both my teammates and me have appreciated. Therefore, I highly recomend Damyan as best tutor of RATE.”
“Damyan is an amazing tutor. He taught us how to write essays, how to read journal articles, how to reference and did it all in his classes while teaching us the content for the day. He is very knowledgable and passionate about his work and loves his students. It was a please learning from him.”
“Damyan is the best tutor. We are like his children for him. He is so engaging and tells you things the way they are. You want to be around him. He has amazing slides and taught us how he does things when we notice something. He literally gave us an essay plan which we use in every subject and it works. He showed us what tutors look for in a presentation, assignment and showed us through his lecture style. And we also can participate in his classes if we find something useful. He lets us talk and teach the others what we know. He is a true mentor. “
“I am impressed with him. He is very knowledgeable, but also knows how to teach us, so we improve too. He is kind and patient. He wants us to know more. When he saw that we didn’t know how to do presentations and case studies, he changed his lecture structure and made them like presentations, so he gave us the new material but also showed us in practice how to present a case study. He explains why this assignment is good for us and how we can use this in other classes and modules. I love this. “
“Damyan is very good with technology and always manages to engage us with new apps and websites which use artificial intelligence to help us build our slides. His readings are so nice and he teaches us how to do them. His feedback is so amazing that you understand exactly what you can improve on and also what your good points are. He always talks about development and improvement. He always wants us to use our phones in class to find information and he does the same thing with his. Not to mention that he lectures with his phone which is very innovative. His essay plan and feedback are the best. He really taught me how to write and I will be forever grateful. “
“Damyan has been tremendously helpful to me and my peers throughout our course. His support has been invaluable, and he represents everything an educator should be. He’s knowledgeable, caring, and dedicated to ensuring that his students do their best. Damyan is consistently in your corner supporting you, and I greatly appreciate that. “
“Damyan is the best tutor I have had. He is mart and very engaging, passionate and helpful. He wants us to know and is happy when we do well. His lectures and slides are so interesting and he takes us outside of Stirling to learn from employers. He makes us apply for work experience and helps us get it. He keeps in touch with us and is very positive. He shows us that there’s nothing we can’t do. He is a great mentor. “
“Damyan is passionate and positive lecturer. He always manages to turn everything we say in class, even if it’s not relevant to what he asks, into a separate discussion and link to something else we study. I love this and this makes people open up because they know what no matter what they say, it will be taken seriously and he teaches us how to incorporate this in a discussion from a different angle. His lectures are almost like seminars. He walks around us with his phone and everybody is nodding and taking part in his classes. Quite spectral to watch. We love his slides and multimedia. He has the best slides ever.”
“Damyan is a great tutor. He always makes sure that students are in the centre of teaching in the seminars or lectures. He makes us present sometimes, look for information and share it or bring it to class. He sometimes runs his lectures like seminars and with 200 people this is very interesting and interactive. He always recaps every reading with 1 sentence and all previous lectures with 3 sentences. This way, we never forget what we did in the previous weeks. He did additional online lectures for us. He always challenges us, but his nice and sunny personality always gets the best out of us. He always gives us job and internship opportunities and this is amazing because we can practice our skills. “
“Damyan is very smart, but his passion is what separates him from the rest. He puts himself in our shoes and always knows how to make us interested in journalism. He includes us in his projects. We help him and gain a lot of knowledge and insight in what he does. We feel included and important. He always smiles, he is positive and wants us to be the best. When we can’t help him, he actually stops and teaches us how and then we learn. He somehow manages to make us feel valued and important. I learned so many skills from him that I want to work with him more.”
“Damyan is the most hard-working, knowledgeable and supportive lecturer. He saw that I have anxieties when talking and invited me to his office hour but I never went. He saw me outside of the class and showed me how to access Skype for business and told me to call him this way in the office hour. His help was beyond every expectation that I want to go to his office hours and talk to him everywhere I see him and he always helps. He recognises when we need help and starts every class with a motivational intro for the class on how we can use this knowledge for other modules in our degree. He’s so passionate about making his students learn and do the best they can that he’s made us to want to attend his classes, even during the last weeks. He inspires us to be better.”
“Damyan has impressed me. He truly goes above and beyond every day. He makes sure we are okay every day and if something is wrong, he suggest ways for us to fix it. He listens to me every time I need to talk and he motivates me to be a better student and person. He has a great network of people in Stirling and includes us in it. He built a great community of journalism students and helps us every day be better. He is a great tutor. I love him.”
“I nominate Damyan for his outstanding support. He is concerned about our wellbeing and always makes sure we’re okay first and then teaching starts. He pays attention to us, looks us in our faces and if something’s not right, he helps. He always starts lectures with announcement about trainings from the learning services and other resources. He encourages us to go to office hours, but he also accepts skype calls and chats for his hour, so we always have support even if we’re not on campus. He knows everybody in the uni and he just calls someone and our problem is solved. We don’t need support services when we have him. He always talks to us about being active and finding jobs and gives us suggestions based on our interests and needs because he says we cannot be successful doing something we don’t like. He is the best mentor. “
“For our journalism presentations, I didn’t know what to do beause I know mainly about sport, but he made me realise that this is a positive and not a negative and encouraged me to use my passion for football and taught me how to turn it into an academic presentation. I will forever remember how he showed me that I’ll never be more successful than doing what I love. This gave me more confidence to believe in my abilities and to know that I matter. He is a legend.”
“Damyan kachulski saved me when I was struggling the most. he believed in me, gave me a week by week strategy to follow for the rest of the semester. He helped me find an internship. He is the only lecturer who calms me down and pays attention because he imagines how I must feel. With him, I will never give us. “
“I went to Damyan for help after he taught me and I received so many ideas, he opened up my horizons for work, internships and opportunities I never thought existed. He spent an hour in his office with me and I only asked for 5 minutes. He gave me readings from past years and from his PhD and also gave me the contacts of 2 of his colleagues who also helped me because of him. He is a teacher I never thought could exist and I am so happy that I came to Stirling and met him. “
“Damyan has managed to create such a great environment for his students on social media. He always replied to my DMs on Twitter about Uni stuff and is now pushing me to write for Brig and work for my local council, based on my interests and I have listened to him. He is the best mentor I have had. He is a great teacher and I will always remember his slides and his essays and lectures. Inspiring. “
“I nominate Damyan. He made my student experience better because of his positive work attitude. He is gentle and calm, has great attention to detail and enthusiasm. He is very serious in his work. More importantly, because he makes international students feel at home in the University of Stirling. When I am in his class, I feel happy and excited. Because he is so humorous. His pronunciation is so clear so I can understand him easily. Besides, I quite love his presentations because the slides he makes are perfect! After class,he often talks with students to answer their questions. He is so patient with students.Besides these, he also shows his kindness when solving our difficulties in life. He will not feel tired to help students any time,even in the weekend even he is very sick. I appreciate what he has done for his students.I nominate Damyan again and again.”
“He is a kind person who help us a lot.I am an international student from BIGC.When we arrived at the campus, he led us to look around the campus as a guide patiently. After we started our classes, he also listened to our advises, and organized lots of activities for us.Our mumbers of group are all thankful and happy that we can meet him. “
“Damyan, who is the first tutor I met in campus, always being gentle and patient during teaching. As a short term exchange programme leader, he’s very hardworking and serious in helping us to adapt new environment quickly, for example, he upload our courses’ materials every evening, which both my teammates and me have appreciated. Therefore, I highly recomend Damyan as best tutor of RATE.”
“He helped me bring my visions to light with all his support. Thats what a teacher must do, support their students and make them believe that they can conquer any obstacle academically and in life itself, that is the role of a teacher and he fulfills it. “
“I nominate Damyan.He made my student experience better because of his positive work attitude. It is our first time to go to University of Stirling. So we had a lots of problems to solve. He as a advisor, never feel tired of helping us. He is very serious in his work. He always answers oue questions till night after working hours. Beside, he is a great tutor. He use interesting App in his classes which leads a relaxed teaching. After class,he often talks with students to answer their questions. He is so patient with students. I appreciate what he has done for his students.I nominate Damyan.”
“He saw me on the bus and asked me how I was. I told him I was struggling with a module. He told me to get my notebook out and spent the next 10 minutes walking me through my essays and points for exam preparation. He answers every time I email him with a random question, even though he doens’t teach me on my other modules. I love the care and attention this lecturer gives me and this is very motivational. “
“Damyan is clearly a very passionate and good lecturer, but he is not only about teaching and marking. He is concerned about wellbeing and wants the students to feel well and confident in his classes. He always encourages us and shows us with his exmaples from his struggles how to improve. He is more than a teacher and I appreciate his help and passion.
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“He noticed my poor attendance. He asked me to stay after class and I told him about my problems. He gave me advice and how to cope from his personal experience. He was checking up on me. He saw something in me and and motivated me so much that at the end of the term, I received an amazing mark for my essay. He is an angel for me. “
“He stopped me and asked me if something’s wrong after class. He made the conditions right for me to open up and I did. He helped me cope with my issues and told all other lecturers in Journalism about me. Every time he saw me in the corridor, he made sure I was ok. He cared and it’s because of him that I didn’t leave. He is my hero and I rely on him for support. He is like a father and a friend.”

Original email with nominations RATE-Feedback-2020 Download

The Recognising and Advancing Teaching Excellence Awards 2019

We are delighted to announce that our Programme Director, Damyan Kachulski, won the 2019 RATE (The Recognising and Advancing Teaching Excellence) Awards for ‘Best Tutor’ and for ‘Outstanding Guidance and Mentoring’ at the RATE Awards ceremony in the University of Stirling. This made him the first ever double RATE Award winner.

Damyan’s commitment to his students and the impact his teaching has on them are evident from the feedback her received from his students at the ceremony:

“Damyan demonstrates great passion in his work and truly cares about students, he will go over and above to ensure people aren’t struggling and is always available for advice and guidance. He is highly knowledgable of his subject and makes it engaging and interactive. I truly enjoy his teaching style. “
“Damyan is a great teacher and mentor. He is knowledgeable, knows how to respond to anybody in any situation and doesn’t gives us the answers to our questions, but makes us think and guides us through answering our questions for ourselves. He asked us where we were from and doesn’t only give us examples from the UK and USA, but gives us examples from what is currently happening in our native countries, which he shouldn’t know if he didn’t deliberately look for these examples beforehand to make the content more relatable to us. This was always amazing and made me emotionally connected to him, the subject and Stirling. He is an inspiration and a pleasure to work with. He refers to us as his colleagues and treats us with respect. He is the best.”
“Damyan Kachulski loves his class and wants us to be the best. He is very brave to be able to show his emotions to us and be so proud when we do a good job. He is motivational and inspirational, very knowledgeable about his topics and others that it gives me the confidence that I am in good hands. He introduced me to the employability service and helped me get a job when I told him I wanted to do more with my free time. He gave me additional resources and readings from coming years, so that I can prepare for the modules coming ahead. He keeps a distance from his students, but at the same time it is clear that he loves us and is proud of us when we do well and we perform well because of him.”
“Damyan has a fountain of knowledge and it seems to be ever expanding. This really shows in his seminars and the way he teaches and engages with his students. He’s a busy man, but always willing to help and goes above and beyond with giving advice on how to approach reading or any other assignment. He’s one to keep close.”
“Damyan listens to us and our difficulties and always turns them into positives and tell us why it’s good that we are going through difficulties and how it makes our learning better. He uses many mobile devices and offers us a lot of alternative teaching methods (records what we do and then makes the rest give us feedback). We always understand his feedback and is always inspirational. He encourages us to spend our time outside of the class productively, to look for internships and work, helps us with our recommendations and applications and when someone is successful he makes them talk to the rest of the class about their experience and this inspires us more. University is not easy and Damyan is sometimes touch when we don’t do a good job, but his kindness, inspiration and leadership have improved us a lot.”
“I am very shy but Damyan saw this and emailed me after class. We spoke and he told me that I can use this as a strength and not a weakness which I thought it was before. He paired me up with a former student of his and she told me how shy she was, but how Damyan helped her and this was very inspiring. He then told me that every time we start discussing the readings, I should prepare 10 sentences to say to the class from the readings and I should start first. Now I have no problem at all to speak and participate. I will be grateful for ever. This has changed my university performance for other classes also.”
“Words fail me to explain my gratitude. He is so encouraging, motivational and kind that everything that he says feels relevant to your individual work. He is so flexible that changes the module content sometimes when we struggle with assessment for other modules, so that we can focus on other work. He set us up with the learning services and with the information desk to help us with presenting and essay writing. He always finds something good about our work and brings it up. He has inspired so many people to switch to journalism and he makes the process so easy for us. He introduced us to the advisors of study and the office staff and now we know to go and seek help from them, if we need to. His example is amazing and I want to be an academic one day because of him.”
“Damyan is knowledgeable but also has emotional intelligence. He always understands when something is wrong or we are not prepared, but instead of making us feel bad about it, he finds a way to inspire us to see what our areas for improvement are and make them strengths with us. He helps us reach our potential and achieve our best work. He thought us how to engage with video materials, journal articles in an easy and interesting way which we never thought existed. He always point us to the right people for help when our issues prevent us from attending or studying. When I was struggling with my assignment, he asked me where I usually study, then he suggested that the environment is important and can affect performance and then brought me to the library after class and helped me plan my work there. It improved my performance.”
“Damyan always speaks to us about leadership and wants us to be leaders and he leads us and the class well. All of his examples relate to us and are current. He includes examples which happened during the week in his lectures and seminars for the same week and taught us to always read the news on our way to his classes. He motivates us to be the best and study hard. Because of his encouragement and example, I got a great internship now. Moreover, he give us information about different departments, competitions and events around the University which are relevant to us. He has really shaped our experience and I love his classes and want to continue with academia because of him. He loves what he does and we start loving our subject also as a result. “
“Whenever we need help, he is always there in person or email. He is very knowledgeable about journalism, politics and every subject we have brought up in class. He is very good with technology and makes us use Box in class to work on the same task altogether, which nobody has done before and this made our classes very engaging. I look forward to Damyan’s seminars or emails every week. Outside of the classes, he organised many speakers to come and talk to us about the practical application of the theory we study. He calls us colleagues and treats us very seriously, like he would like to be treated. Everybody attends his lectures because he is good and what he teaches we use in seminars and our assignments. He doesn’t say anything irrelevant. He inspires us to participate.”
“Whenever we need help, he is always there in person or email. He is very knowledgeable about journalism, politics and every subject we have brought up in class. He is very good with technology and makes us use Box in class to work on the same task altogether, which nobody has done before and this made our classes very engaging. I look forward to Damyan’s seminars or emails every week. Outside of the classes, he organised many speakers to come and talk to us about the practical application of the theory we study. He calls us colleagues and treats us very seriously, like he would like to be treated. Everybody attends his lectures because he is good and what he teaches we use in seminars and our assignments. He doesn’t say anything irrelevant. He inspires us to participate.”
“Damyan Kachulski loves his class and wants us to be the best. He is very brave to be able to show his emotions to us and be so proud when we do a good job. He is motivational and inspirational, very knowledgeable about his topics and others that it gives me the confidence that I am in good hands. He introduced me to the employability service and helped me get a job when I told him I wanted to do more with my free time. He gave me additional resources and readings from coming years, so that I can prepare for the modules coming ahead. He keeps a distance from his students, but at the same time it is clear that he loves us and is proud of us when we do well and we perform well because of him.”
“Damyan is full of ideas and is so flexible. If the computer in the rooms won’t work, he takes his phone and shares his screen with our phones and we use the materials he gives us to discuss in class. He is very inspirational and even when things go wrong, he remains calm and finds a way out. His examples are amazing and the way he explains academic martial to us is very understandable. He is young and gives us examples from his essays for his degree in Stirling University and uses them as example for structure and format. He knows everything about the University and doesn’t need time to get back to us, he just answers directly. He showed us what our modules are until 4th year. Not only did he teach us, but also shaped our understanding about the University and beyond with work experience and jobs.”
“Damyan always speaks to us about leadership and wants us to be leaders and he leads us and the class well. All of his examples relate to us and are current. He includes examples which happened during the week in his lectures and seminars for the same week and taught us to always read the news on our way to his classes. He motivates us to be the best and study hard. Because of his encouragement and example, I got a great internship now. Moreover, he give us information about different departments, competitions and events around the University which are relevant to us. He has really shaped our experience and I love his classes and want to continue with academia because of him. He loves what he does and we start loving our subject also as a result. “
“While I have never personally been under his tutelage, he is a fantastic tutor/teacher. I have sought his advice many times on many different issues. He is born to educate and help people. He truly wants the best for his students and will always answer e-mails/messages, even from students that he has not seen for years. What is most amazing about him is his ability to take huge amounts of information and condense it to its barest form. He then proceeds to explain it without making the person feel like they are stupid or incapable. This innate skill is one that NOT a lot of tutors have. If i could turn back time i would seriously consider switching my undergraduate study with the hope of being in one of his classes. Damyan has a bright future ahead of him. I hope wherever his path takes him he remains this grounded, compassionate and dedicated to improving the way we educate people.
HE DESERVES THIS!”
“Damyan is so good at what he does. I had anxiety presenting in class and he offered me 3 alternative ways of assessment, he pointed me out to the Hub to get assessment from them and support, but most importantly he helped me work though my anxiety – he made me understand why presenting would be great for me, even more because I am anxious, and had me present only to him in his office hour. He made me very comfortable and I am ready to talk in his classes now. He is amazing and very inspirational. He is a life saver, he genuinely cares. I love his classes.”
“I think he deserves this nomination because to be a teacher you need intelligence and passion. Frankly speaking the role of a teacher is to transfer knowledge and let the pupil get ingrossed in the subject and I think damyan possesses all those qualities needed for this nomination. Through out my learning years i¿ve never seen a man so passionate and joyful while teaching, I think you can literally describe him as a man born to teach. “
“Damyan’s reading materials are always relevant and available. He points us in the right direction of reading, technology and other events. He is brave and resourceful. Once there was a clash with another class and instead of not knowing what to do and losing time, he calmly brought us to a quiet corridor and we had the seminar there only using our phones, which was the most memorable experience so far. He demonstrates us again and again that we don’t depend on anything and anyone, but only on our choices and encourages us to always find a way to solve our problems and difficulties. I will miss him and his classes. He taught us a lot by recapping the main readings/concepts every other week and this helped us improve our essay and exam scores. He is inspirational and makes us want to do the work.”
“Damyan’s seminars are stimulating, interesting and engaging. He takes us everywhere with him. He tells us about educational events in BBC Scotland, the department and in Stirling. He uses a lot of online teaching applications, websites and programmes which makes academia more related to us. He is tough, but inspirational and the only person who makes absolutely everyone talk in class. Even if they haven’t done the readings, he gives them a short article to read or video to watch on their phones and then asks them to engage. To us who always prepare for class, he gives us additional resources, shows us how to go beyond what the module teaches us and bring information from other sources.”
“Damyan has been an invaluable help throughout the past year, I owe him a lot! He is an inspiring teacher and academic, whenever someone asks for advice or help, he is there and makes time for them. I don’t know where I would be without his critical feedback and support.
When students are struggling, he is there and offers to help, even after he is not their tutor anymore. He cares, he really does. He pushed people to be their best selves, he goes the extra mile. Every time.
Thank you, Damyan, just … thank you for everything. “
“Damyan’s patience and considerate nature brings the best out of us. If he sees something doesn’t work, he changes it on the spot and always gives us a rationale for what we are asked to do. If someone is not able to attend his classes, he’d email them and give them tasks and notes form the seminars so they don’t miss anything. When we have a presentation assignment, he changes the structure of his lectures to show us how to structure our own talks (main points first and last and in between the body). Everybody feels comfortable to contribute and if something goes wrong, Damyan has their back and gets them back on track. The best thing he does is he explains to us why his assignments are good for us, how to study, how to approach preparation and so on from his own practice, leading with his own example.”
“Damyan is clearly so passionate about his subject and makes sure we all understand the concepts he teaches. He has made me so comfortable asking him for help concerning upcoming exams and assignments by not only talking to me but also taking time and re-reading my work, pointing out every little detail I could improve in the future. I am anxious when it comes to office hours and talking to tutors, but he suggested that we first talk via Skype for Business and made me see there is nothing scary. His support was so outstanding and beyond every expectation, that I feel a lot more confident now talking to people in person. His own enthusiasm about the subject makes every seminar a unique experience, and I would strongly recommend him to everyone who is willing to work hard and achieve a lot.”
“Before coming to university I never considered taking Journalism but now I want to continue it as part of my degree. Damyan has been a huge part of that as he has helped put me in contact with people that can help me. On top of that, he is a really passionate person who obviously loves journalism and makes his students love it too. There has been many times i¿ve caught myself thinking `I could do this¿ and it wouldn¿t have even been considered before this. When we don¿t understand something he explains it in ways which make sense and he¿s always making us look at the subject from different perspectives to make us think. He makes my friends and I want to work hard and make him proud. So, i¿m really thankful I randomly decided to take journalism this year, and i¿m also thankful that I got a tutor who goes above and beyond to help his students and makes them want to do better in this subject. “
“The best tutor. Sometimes he runs his lectures like seminars. He gives us microphones and walks around us while teaching and occasionally asks us what authors and concepts from past weeks we can relate to the new material. This way everyone is alert and engaged. He uses sometimes Kahoot, Prezi, Skype and other tools in his classes, other times he just uses the white board. You never know what to expect and other times he asks us questions at the beginning and we need to answer at the end using our phones to support our answers with sources (documents/policy/laws), but while listening to his class and participating. It is really challenging but this has developed our ability to work quickly and under pressure and we see at the end that it’s easy and works.”
“Damyan always made sure seminars were a place for students to discuss readings, regularly present powerpoint presentations about the weekly reading or key concepts of theory. He made it enjoyable and interesting and put students first. “
“Damyan is knowledgeable but also has emotional intelligence. He always understands when something is wrong or we are not prepared, but instead of making us feel bad about it, he finds a way to inspire us to see what our areas for improvement are and make them strengths with us. He helps us reach our potential and achieve our best work. He thought us how to engage with video materials, journal articles in an easy and interesting way which we never thought existed. He always point us to the right people for help when our issues prevent us from attending or studying. When I was struggling with my assignment, he asked me where I usually study, then he suggested that the environment is important and can affect performance and then brought me to the library after class and helped me plan my work there. It improved my performance”
“Damyan is amazing. Every time I receive an email from Damyan I cannot wait to read it. He always gives us additional information, help and an interesting way to engage with the realigns and the course materials. He records himself explaining things and sends these to us. We work together in Box and Office 365 and in the Maker Space. He encourages us to be creative and solve problems. He is a great tutor and I am grateful that he is there.”
“Damyan is a great teacher and mentor. He is knowledgeable, knows how to respond to anybody in any situation and doesn’t gives us the answers to our questions, but makes us think and guides us through answering our questions for ourselves. He asked us where we were from and doesn’t only give us examples from the UK and USA, but gives us examples from what is currently happening in our native countries, which he shouldn’t know if he didn’t deliberately look for these examples beforehand to make the content more relatable to us. This was always amazing and made me emotionally connected to him, the subject and Stirling. He is an inspiration and a pleasure to work with. He refers to us as his colleagues and treats us with respect. He is the best.”
“Damyan’s outstanding effort in teaching has made us engage with topics in a manner we never thought about before. When we see academic theory as something impractical, he recognises this and gives us the real application of concepts in ways very few people do. He’s a fantastic mentor who always goes above and beyond to support us. His style of teaching has helped my confidence and engage with readings. He doesn’t stand in front of the class, but walks among us. This way, he encourages healthy debate and free thinking. His is approachable making it so much easier for people to participate in seminars, there is no worry of what his reaction may be to your thoughts. He is knowledgable but shows interest in subjects he is not familiar with and immediately finds a way to use what he hears from us in his talks. He’s made me not quit. “
“Words fail me to explain my gratitude. He is so encouraging, motivational and kind that everything that he says feels relevant to your individual work. He is so flexible that changes the module content sometimes when we struggle with assessment for other modules, so that we can focus on other work. He set us up with the learning services and with the information desk to help us with presenting and essay writing. He always finds something good about our work and brings it up. He has inspired so many people to switch to journalism and he makes the process so easy for us. He introduced us to the advisors of study and the office staff and now we know to go and seek help from them, if we need to. His example is amazing and I want to be an academic one day because of him.”
“I am very shy but Damyan saw this and emailed me after class. We spoke and he told me that I can use this as a strength and not a weakness which I thought it was before. He paired me up with a former student of his and she told me how shy she was, but how Damyan helped her and this was very inspiring. He then told me that every time we start discussing the readings, I should prepare 10 sentences to say to the class from the readings and I should start first. Now I have no problem at all to speak and participate. I will be grateful for ever. This has changed my university performance for other classes also.”
“Damyan is an excellent lecturer and seminar tutor. Despite taking on almost all the seminars of the entire JOUU9X2 module he makes the extra effort to personally get to know everyone. His lectures and seminars are incredibly informative and I feel like his methods of teaching have really enhanced my learning this semester. There is a plethora of extra learning materials on canvas and if we are in need of any help he is more than willing to work with with us personally to help our understanding. I couldn’t praise him enough!”
“Damyan listens to us and our difficulties and always turns them into positives and tell us why it’s good that we are going through difficulties and how it makes our learning better. He uses many mobile devices and offers us a lot of alternative teaching methods (records what we do and then makes the rest give us feedback). We always understand his feedback and is always inspirational. He encourages us to spend our time outside of the class productively, to look for internships and work, helps us with our recommendations and applications and when someone is successful he makes them talk to the rest of the class about their experience and this inspires us more. University is not easy and Damyan is sometimes touch when we don’t do a good job, but his kindness, inspiration and leadership have improved us a lot.”
“Damyan is the best tutor I’ve had so far. He really care about his students’ education and is always willing to help us in any way he can (and he’s also super quick at replying to emails!). At the start of every tutorial he makes sure everyone understood correctly the concepts of the lectures before moving forward to discussing the readings, he welcomes any question and engages with students not by making them feel pressured to answer or to know, but by stimulating them and invite them to reflect on the topic. Moreover he’s the only tutor to check the register out loud by calling the name and looking at each person: I think this is important for making the student feel at ease as well as acknowledging him/her as person, not just a number written on a random paper (which we do have to sign, but actually in the tutor’s eye anyone else could have signed it and it wouldn’t matter).”

Original email with nominations RATE-Feedback-2019 Download

The Recognising and Advancing Teaching Excellence Awards 2018

Damyan was nominated for a RATE award in 2018. Some of his nominations were:

“Damyan continued to give outstanding effort for the students despite the circumstances of the strike and the limited communication from his colleges. He is also a clearly intelligent and well spoken person who engages the students with topics in a manner that they may not have thought about before. For those reasons I believe that he deserves this reward. “
“Damyan is a fantastic mentor who always goes above and beyond to offer his support and knowledge to his students. Despite the strikes he did everything to continue to support the students and continue to run our seminars. His teaching has helped me adjust to university and get the most out of the readings. “
“Damyan is so clearly passionate in the seminars he takes for journalism. He encourages healthy debate and free thinking, providing his own thoughts and beliefs also. His approach is friendly and makes it so much easier for people to take part in seminars, there is no worry of what his reaction may be to your thoughts. He is knowledgable but also willing to learn himself, showing interest in topics he is not familiar with and admitting if he is unsure of something. “
“Genuinely cares about his students, he has gone above and beyond in every seminar this semester and has been so supportive to everyone. You can see he really cares about the subject and is more than happy to answer any questions if we as students are unsure. “
“He explained every concept very clearly to us, while making sure no one was bored or impatiently waiting for the hour to end. There was a lot of student participation, as well as many activities which worked to engrain the concepts into our minds. Alongside academic support, he also ensured that we all had the emotional support and guidance we would need in order to succeed on the module. “
“As a first year undergraduate, joining Stirling University was both an exciting and scary prospect. I took Journalism Studies as another module and met seminar tutor Damyan. His seminars were always useful and exciting in their own way and he made Journalism easy to understand and approach. He took more of an active role in helping, making sure each person in the class had to answer at least one question during the seminar. This and other group work made sure that everyone was involved, which seems like a common sensible thing to do, however its always important to make sure that students are excited and invested in the subject every week. Damyan also had slides during his seminar classes to help first years fit into the University. Overall, he showed an impressive investment in students and their studies, genuinely wanting us to succeed and enjoy studying at Stirling University.”
“Damyan really helped me when I asked him for help concerning upcoming exams and assignments by not only talking to me but also taking time and re-reading my work, pointing out every little detail I could work on. I am usually quite nervous when it comes to office hours and talking to tutors, but his support was so amazing and beyond every expectation, that I feel a lot more confident now. His own enthusiasm about the subject makes every seminar a unique experience, and I would strongly recommend him to everyone who is willing to work hard and takes university seriously. “