Winners chosen for the inaugural Alumni Volunteer Awards

In celebration of all of our amazing volunteers, and to say thank you to those exceptional individuals who do so much to support us all, we launched our inaugural ‘University of Exeter Alumni Volunteer Awards’.

We named them after a pair of exceptional alumni volunteers, whose commitment of time, skills, advice, energy and enthusiasm have had a huge impact on our institution.

The Debbie Hill Award for exceptional support of students – named in honour of Debbie Hill (Drama, 2006), Head of Volunteering at Marie Curie, in recognition of her invaluable advice and guidance on the development of our alumni volunteering programme.

This was awarded to Duncan Goldsworthy (Chemistry, 1977) for his long-standing and committed support of a wide range of student employability activities. He said: “I am absolutely delighted to have received the Debbie Hill award and so pleased to think that my efforts have been appreciated. Sometimes it is difficult to know whether you are doing the right thing and I am very conscious about the 35-40-something year age gap between myself and my mentees. However, I am so glad that I am able to continue to be of use to the students at Exeter University and I will continue to provide as much support as I possibly can.”

The Nicholas Bull Award for exceptional support of the alumni community – named after Nicholas Bull (Chemistry, 1973) who has been volunteering his time and expertise for the University of Exeter for almost two decades and has worked tirelessly to engage alumni in support of the University.

This was awarded to Wenjie Li (Msc Accounting and Finance, 2012) for his pioneering development of the Exeter China Alumni Association. He said: “It is my privilege and honour to receive the Nicholas Bull Award. I appreciate the encouragement and guidance from University of Exeter and all you have done to supporting alumni development in China.”