Bangaldeshi Australian Dr Mahfuz Aziz won the nation’s highest honour The Prime Minister's Award for Australian University Teacher of the Year.
PM’s top teacher takes a bow
Associate Professor Mahfuz Aziz, an engineering lecturer at the University of South Australia, has won the nation’s highest honour for university teachers – The Prime Minister’s Award for Australian University Teacher of the Year.
The premier university teaching award follows his earlier recognition in the Australian Teaching and Learning Council’s Awards for Teaching Excellence in the field of physical sciences.
The $50,000 award recognises an academic with an exceptional record of advancing student learning, educational leadership and scholarly contribution to teaching and learning.
Dr Aziz leads first year engineering programs across UniSA’s Division of Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment.
And if student feedback is any indication Dr Aziz is indeed an exceptional teacher.
Third-year Bachelor of Engineering: Computer Systems student, Simon Kupke, says what is notable about Dr Aziz is the very personal commitment he shows to his students.
“Dr Aziz is our lecturer but it is nothing for him to pop into our tutorials and practical sessions just to see how we are going and make sure we have a full understanding of what we are learning,” Kupke says.
“He is also careful to make the relevance of what we are learning a key part of how he teaches. He shares his experience of how theory is applied in industry.
“I’m finding everything we study with him is relevant because he shows us why that is the case and he gives us extra exercises that support our chances of getting good jobs when we graduate.
“Dr Aziz is one of the best lecturers I have had because you know he cares and that he goes above and beyond what you would expect from a university lecturer.”
The Prime Minister’s Teacher of the Year Award acknowledges Dr Aziz’s sustained contributions in teaching and learning, locally and internationally, over the past 10 years.
Moving from Bangladesh to Australia in 1999, Dr Aziz has used his experience of teaching in a new context to create programs that help students adapt to the new social and educational environment that university provides.
University of South Australia Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Høj said the entire university community is very proud of Dr Aziz’s achievement.
“Mahfuz is a wonderful example of what it takes to be an excellent university teacher – he is dedicated to his students and has a real passion to ensure that they have a quality educational experience at university – one that is relevant, informed by the latest research and delivered with genuine enthusiasm and care,” Professor Høj said.
“We have made a significant investment at UniSA in reshaping the student learning environment so that all students can benefit from the elements of good teaching that Mahfuz so clearly has brought to his students. This approach is invaluable because it helps us deliver the best graduates for the workforce.”
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