Recent student successes

The University's students have had an enormously successful year, from winning national prizes to garnering acclaim at international competitions, and our students continue to show why Westminster is the University for London. Here are just a few examples.

Future stars of fashion emerge on graduate runway

Fashion design graduates reaffirmed their international reputation as innovative designers at their graduate

runway show held as part of Graduate Fashion Week. Student collections were requested by a number of magazines including Vogue Italia, which will feature the work of three students in future 09 issues, and V Magazine in New York who shot two of our collections, said Andrew Groves, course director. BA Fashion Design student, Sarah Benning, who showed first, wowed immediately with her unusual exploration of the human body. Her prints were detailed renderings of bone and muscle sinew, with models sheathed in intestines alongside a green, pale pink and beige colour palette (pictured right).

Westminster Business School blogger a cut above the rest

A Westminster Business School student, Faisal J. Abbas, was awarded a prestigious Cutting Edge Award for his contribution to blogging at the 2009 International Media Awards in London. Faisal, who is studying towards an MA in Marketing Communications, received the award for his Huffington Post blogging. The Huffington Post is an internationally acclaimed American liberal news website and weblog which features various news sources and columnists.

BA Commercial music students wins prestigious music prize

Twenty-one-year-old Alex Lipinski, a student on the Universitys BA Commercial Music course, won the Development Prize at the annual Musicians Benevolent Fund Awards, held at the end of 2008 in London. Alex used the prizemoney to showcase his recently completed debut album in America, with planned concerts in New York, Washington and Philadelphia.

Student radio scooped three top prizes at Student Radio Awards

Smoke Radios Dan Roberts won gold in the best newcomer of the year award, while the station was awarded silver in the overall

best student station section and presenters Ross Goodlass and Ricky Marshall picked up the bronze award in the best interview category.

It is the third year in a row that the station - which broadcasts to students and staff at the Universitys Harrow site - has won top prizes at the prestigious student awards.

Students turn it on at Kodak Student Commercial Awards

The University's film and television students continued to triumph in early 2009 with a second and third year team winning the First Prize Overall at this year's Kodak Student Commercial Awards. The team of Lucas Adamson, producer, Ryan Vernava, director, and Alastair Collinson, writer, won the award and a £6,000 production grant for a 30-second commercial for Lynx deodorant, Be Careful Who You Turn On, based on a brief from leading London advertising agency BBH.

The Beefeater's new clothes

With the help of a University fashion student, Poppy Totman, the Beefeaters of the Tower have been sartorially ushered into the 21^st century. 19 year old Poppy, a BA Fashion Design student, was one of three fashion students whose winning designs were unveiled as part of a Beefeater gin competition to create new state dress uniforms for the Yeoman Warders. Poppy's winning design is pictured left.

Architecture graduate wins President's Medal Award

Dominic Severs, who graduated from the Universitys Graduate Diploma in Architecture (RIBA Part 2) in 2007, won the Dissertation Medal at the Presidents Medals Student Awards 2008, held at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). His dissertation, entitled Rookeries and No-go Estates: St. Giles and Broadwater Farm, drew parallels between the densely packed housing of the poor in 19^th century London and the post-war modernist housing estates built by local authorities in the capital. It is the third time in succession that a University student has won the prize.

Another Westminster student, Mark Rist, won the Serjeant Award for Excellence in Drawing for his project Street Life - Communes for Urbanites, which featured designs for a new urban streetscape combining a generic London shopping area with the vibrancy and community feel of Soho.

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