Information for departments
WATE Reboot — Key Changes at a glance
- Self-nominations for Awards now accepted: Staff, Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) who teach, and Teams may self-nominate.
- Departments recommend judges: We would love to see more departments across Warwick involved in the judging process. To this end, we are inviting the departments to nominate both staff and student judges to support fair, faculty-level review. This helps us strengthen representation across the university, improve inclusion, and make the process run more smoothly for everyone.
- Significantly reduced judge time commitment: now only one Calibration Meeting and asynchronous reviews requiring approximately 10-12 hours of work in total
Departmental responsibilities & judge information
Minimum judge recommendations
- 1 student judge (UG or PG), and
- 1 staff judge (academic or professional services).
Size-based guidance
Small departments (fewer than 10 teaching staff): may opt out or recommend one judge.
Large departments (more than 50 teaching staff): please aim for two staff and two student judges, if possible.
If a Faculty cannot supply enough judges, the WATE team may invite judges from outside the Faculty to ensure timely reviews.
Judge recommendation requirements
Consent first: Please seek consent from the prospective judges before you submit their details to the WATE team.
Availability: Judges should be aware of the WATE timeline and be able to engage in both stages if required.
Commitment: The overall commitment required (Stage 1 only or Stages 1 & 2) will be confirmed once we have the overall number of nominations. As a guidance, we anticipate approx. 4 hours for calibration (pre-reading + calibration meeting); approx. 6-8 hours to review Stage 1 and Stage 2 award nominations. Timelines and guidance will be communicated prior to each stage.
Judge recognition
- Staff judges are not paid.
- Staff judges might be able to claim time allocation within their workload (at the discretion of HoDs)
- Student judges are not paid.
- Student judges may claim Warwick Award points (see WATE Judging process for details). The WATE team will assist them with this process.
How to invite judges to express interest
Departments might consider one or all of the following:
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Add an invitation to serve as a WATE judge to your departmental newsletter or bulletin.
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Share a one-minute call for judges in a department or staff meeting.
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Ask academic/professional services staff to invite interested students directly (e.g., advisees, reps, PGR cohorts).
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Contact former WATE judges (staff or students) to suggest new candidates or help promote the call.
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Invite your previous departmental WATE winners to serve.
Inclusive recruitment: We encourage you reach out to staff and students who have not previously served, and proactively encourage expressions of interest from under-represented groups