Since 2006, the University of Tartu has been presenting the Teaching Staff of the Year Award. The award recognises one academic staff member in the faculty of arts and humanities, one in the faculty of social sciences, one in the faculty of medicine, and one in the faculty of science and technology, who has distinguished themselves with very good teaching skills in the previous year. The Rector presents the Teaching Staff of the Year award at a festive ceremony organised in February to celebrate the anniversary of the Republic of Estonia. The award recipient is given a certificate and a financial reward.
As student representatives, the role of UTSU is to bring information about the recognition to the students and to encourage as many students as possible to recognise their lecturers. UTSU also plays a key role in the final selection of the Teaching Staff of the Year – the chairman of the selection committee is the vice president of UTSU’s board (area of study quality), and the committee includes students from all faculties and levels of study. The committee usually has eight members – two from each faculty, and the committee also includes the study quality specialists from the student councils of the faculties (FSC). The task of each FSC is to select the five best nominees from all the candidates in its faculty, among whom the committee will make a decision.
Candidates for the Teaching Staff of the Year award can be submitted throughout the year, as the submission form never closes. However, the results as of December 20 are taken into account each year and the decision is made based on the candidates submitted by that time.