Outstanding winners in 19 categories at The PIEoneer Awards 2022 have been revealed at a glamorous gala in central London.
With joint winners in two categories, the 21 winners from 12 countries were recognised for their formidable achievements over the past year. A further 21 finalists were bestowed highly commended honours.
In 2022, two organisations joined the likes of TAFE Queensland, United World Schools, SPARK, Daughters For Life Foundation and Global Leadership League, to be recognised in the highly anticipated PIEoneer of the year category.
Clinical experience platform AMOpportunities and tuition-free online institution University of the People – both based in the US – were jointly crowned PIEoneers of the year 2022.
The Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, also from the US, was highly commended for its RESPONSE Campaign: College and University Sponsorship of Refugee Students.
Founder and chairperson of the National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK Sanam Arora was presented the coveted Outstanding contribution to the industry award for her work supporting Indian students and youth in the UK.
NISAU UK was also recognised in the Student support award category, as well as highly commended in the Association of the year finalists. English Australia took home the Association of the year award, which was won by its UK counterpart English UK in 2021.
Other Australian awardees include Mozaik Play, which took the top prize in the competitive International student recruitment organisation of the year category, and English Unlimited, which was recognised as Language educator of the year.
On winning the Outstanding contribution to the industry category, Arora from the NISAU thanked the UK and the global higher education industry for supporting the platform.
“The NISAU, as we call it, there isn’t a platform like ours, elsewhere in the world. And I know that Britain is a place where, you know, there is either an opportunity for someone, that is an opportunity to create an opportunity,” she said.
“Indian students have a fabulous history in the UK, from Mahatma Gandhi, the man who brought us India’s freedom to Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar who was like me, a graduate of the LSE, a great privilege I’m honoured to share, who wrote the Indian Constitution.
“Thousands of Indian students have come to the UK to study over the years. This organisation is an ode to them,” she noted, also giving thanks to the hundreds of volunteers that have helped the organisation over the decade of its existence.
“We created this organisation to champion the spirit of philanthropy and of giving back to society”
“We created this organisation to champion the spirit of philanthropy and of giving back to society, because every international student who has the privilege of studying abroad has a certain privilege, and we want to encourage them to give back to society.”
She also announced that – in celebration of India’s 75th anniversary of independence – NISAU will, together with the British Council in India and the British High Commission, recognise 75 achievers of Indian origin who have “gone on to achieve greatly in their field after studying in the UK”.
“This [will be] our way of recognising our alumni who have gone on to deliver great social impact across fields,” Arora noted.
PIEoneer Awards judge, Suryani Halim from Universitas Ciputra in Indonesia said a “tremendous progress of innovation happened with our PIE finalists this year”.
“I’ve found many interesting breakthroughs for helping international students get their dream to study with global universities.
“Empowerment of global students in work industries is very important for each country’s future. I truly feel honoured to represent my country, Indonesia and my university, Universitas Ciputra, to be the judge of PIE 2021 and 2022.”
The PIE events team relocated the venue of awards within 24 hours as a result of Guildhall’s close links with the Royal Household following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
“The entries to this year’s PIEoneer Awards were once again outstanding – our judges had some difficult decisions on their hands,” said CEO of the PIE, Amy Baker.
“The news of the the Queen’s passing was very saddening, and we wanted to make sure that in going ahead with the event we paid our respects to her.
“It was an historic day to hold our annual ceremony and actually amazing to be able to come together with so many of our international community to build and strengthen global ties, while of course honouring all the achievements of our finalists.”
“Congratulations to all the highly commended finalists and of course, the winners!” Baker added.
The full list of winners and highly commended of The PIEoneer Awards 2022:
- Association of the year: English Australia, Australia
Highly commended: NISAU UK
- Championing diversity award: Fulbright Colombia Commission, Colombia
Highly commended: Ngā Hononga-ā-Kiwa, Aotearoa, New Zealand
- Digital innovation of the year – assess & creds: Convergence.Tech Inc., Canada – Convergence.Tech Identity (C.TI)
Highly commended: futureproof, UK
- Digital innovation of the year – learning: ACE (Australian Centre for Education), Cambodia – Connecting Cambodia – The ACE App
Highly commended: SOWISO / Bolster Academy, The Netherlands
- Digital innovation of the year – technology: Enroly, UK – CAS Shield
Highly commended: LeverageEdu, India – Study Abroad with LeverageEdu (App on iOS & Android)
- Employability international impact award: SPARK, Iraq – Remote Internship Programme for Refugees/IDPs
Highly commended: Steps Community, Thailand and Study Australia, Australia – Industry Experience Program
- International alumni of the year: Gabriella Blumberg, South Africa – MetFilm School, United Kingdom
Highly commended: Montita Sowapark, US – School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London and International Students House, UK and Yinbo Yu, China – University College London, UK
- International student living award: Londonist DMC, UK and Nido Student, UK
Highly commended: International Students House, UK
- International student recruitment organisation of the year: Mozaik Play, Australia
Highly commended: Leverage Edu, India
- Language educator of the year: English Unlimited, Australia
Highly commended: EC Language Centres, Malta
- Marketing campaign of the year: The University of Auckland, New Zealand, India Support Programme (ISP)
Highly commended: University of Birmingham, UK – Game Changing Birmingham
- Outstanding contribution to the industry: Sanam Arora, India
Highly commended: Calliope Rodopoulou, Greece
- PIEoneer of the year: AMOpportunities, US and University of the People, US
Highly commended: Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, US – RESPONSE Campaign: College and University Sponsorship of Refugee Students
- Progressive education delivery award: ProjectCHAKRA, UK
Highly commended: Capilano University | School of Motion Picture Arts, Canada
- Public / Private partnership of the year: Laspau, Affiliated with Harvard University, US and Banco Santander S.A. (Santander Universidades), Spain – Becas Santander Skills/Innovation in Teaching – Laspau: “Certificate in teaching: exploring and (re)connecting with evidence”
Highly commended:Study NSW and Multiple partners, Australia – International Student Arrivals Pilot Program (ISAPP) and Successful Graduate Pty Ltd and Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Study Australia), Australia – Free microcredentials that encourage post-COVID enrolments with Australian education providers
- Real life learning award: World Association for Cooperative and Work-integrated Education, Canada – Global Challenge
Highly commended: Intern Abroad HQ, New Zealand
- Secondary learning international impact award: Nord Anglia Education, UK
Highly commended: THINK Global School, Global – traveling secondary programme
- Student support award: National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK [NISAU UK], UK
Highly commended: Study Melbourne Hubs, Australia
- Sustainability international impact award: EHL, Switzerland – Food operations on global environmental sustainability
Highly commended: Intern Abroad HQ, New Zealand and Pagoda Projects, UK
