Published on: Wednesday, 26 May 2021

Munster Technological University (MTU) have been awarded their second National DELTA Award (Disciplinary Excellence in Teaching Learning & Assessment) for Entrepreneurship Teaching and Learning (T&L). This prestigious award goes to everyone involved in the MTU wide entrepreneurship T&L ecosystem. Led by the Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence, part of the School of Business, the application team of 14 staff and students from across the University represents their wider teaching and learning colleagues. 

Speaking at the announcement of the award, MTU President, Professor Maggie Cusack, expressed her delight that MTU has been successful in renewing the prestigious National DELTA Award and highlighted that “since our previous DELTA award in 2018, we have grown, enhanced, and widened student opportunities, particularly in the social entrepreneurship area with a renewed focus on societal, sustainable, and environmental impact. We have built on our research capacity through an increase in entrepreneurship focused PhD researchers and PhD graduates in this field and increased participation in staff CPD.” 

Accepting the award on behalf of her colleagues, the team lead, Dr Helen McGuirk, Head of the Hincks Centre, offered her warmest congratulations to everyone across MTU who supports entrepreneurship and innovation in all its forms. Reflecting the new MTU motto, Helen said “this award represents the value of people working together and succeeding together to empower people to achieve excellence in entrepreneurship.” 

The magnificent trophy designed by Zuzana Jezikova, specially commissioned for the 2021 DELTA Awards focuses on the voyage to champion excellence in entrepreneurship teaching and learning. The piece is based on the concept of a voyage, the boat conceptualizes a defined space, or in this case the discipline of entrepreneurship and the team of teachers, leaders, and student that are embarking on this journey.  

About the Delta Award

MTU were awarded their second National DELTA Award (Disciplinary Excellence in Teaching Learning & Assessment) for Entrepreneurship Teaching and Learning (T&L).  The DELTA Award is essential in demonstrating and strengthening teaching and learning excellence within higher education communities and is only awarded to teams who are making exceptional commitments to teaching and learning enhancements. The Award recognises the value of those discipline groups within institutions who can demonstrate sustained achievements in teaching and learning enhancement, and who articulate a plan for further development of teaching and learning that can be shared as good practice across the sector. The long application process involved six months of work by the multidisciplinary team led by the Hincks Centre for Entrepreneurship Excellence, part of the School of Business.  The application began initially by mapped the aspects of enhancement for teaching and learning, identification of an agreed future focus for teaching and learning enhancement and finally the development of an action plan for teaching and learning enhancement that considered the specific components of the DELTA Framework. The application process was challenging at times especially given the added issue of Covid19 restriction but with excellent team work and support from colleagues across the University, the Award recognises the value of succeeding together!  Reviewed by an international panel of judges early in the year, the team then met with the judging panel (online) to discuss specific topics of the application and action plan.     

The team would like thank the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, for their support, vision and commitment to excellence in teaching and learning.