MSc student Rosie Crawford studying a sample using a microscope
MSc student Rosie Crawford studies a sample under a microscope

ÂãÁÄÖ±²¥ student Rosie Crawford has been shortlisted for Masters Student of the Year in the Postgrad Awards 2021.

The awards, run by FindAMasters.com and FindAPhD.com, will take place on 7 June, when a will have the difficult task of whittling down the shortlist to just one winner.

Rosie is one of seven shortlisted in the category of Masters Student of the Year, which recognises the hard work, dedication and commitment of exemplary postgraduate students. If she wins, she will receive £500.

Commenting on her nomination, she said: “When we found out about the awards, me and my friends thought it would be fun to nominate each other. So, we read each other’s CVs and learned about what we had all been doing, because we haven’t seen each other in ages.

“I genuinely thought the friend I was nominating would end up getting shortlisted – I didn’t think I would at all. When I saw on Twitter that they had released the shortlist, I checked, expecting to see her name. To see my name on there was very surreal and not expected at all.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet. I’m not letting myself get excited because I don’t expect to win, and to be shortlisted from so many nominations is already an achievement.â€

A keen videographer, Rosie has been filming and posting video blogs (vlogs) on YouTube since her undergraduate studies at Oxford University, providing a free resource to help prospective students to apply and to find out more about daily life at university.

During the first coronavirus lockdown, she was part of a student-led, cross-university initiative called The StudyTube Project, in which students uploaded daily videos about their subject, aimed at school pupils learning from home.

Rosie is currently in the final weeks of studying for her MSc in Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology.

Course leader Dr Nicholas Márquez-Grant said: “We are so pleased that Rosie has been shortlisted for this award. It is admirable how she is able to manage being a great student and creating all these videos and inspiring people, all the while with a smile on her face. It is a privilege to have her on our course, and we feel sure that the communications she has been creating will continue to help our students in years to come.â€

More than 270 students were nominated this year in the Postgrad Awards. .