Aims

FSTE Outstanding Award for Student Integrated Service (OASIS) is established to recognise and reward FSTE Member Institutions’ professional staff, including Student Affairs Officers, Student Counsellors, Student Advisors, Mentors, Coaches and Staff providing direct services to students.  This Award acknowledges their exceptional services and contributions to students’ whole-person development, life and career planning, study needs as well as community engagement.  This initiative also aims to promote and share good practices for integrated student services, fostering a culture of quality enhancement amongst Member Institutions.

Eligbility

  • Full-time professional staff (Student Affairs Officers, Student Counsellors, Student Advisors, Mentors, Coaches and Staff providing direct services to students) who have been performing student integrated or supporting services for at least two consecutive academic years.
  •  Nominations can be made on individual or team basis. For team nomination, each team may consist of no more than four members, including a team leader.
  • A maximum of two nominations, including individual and team, are limited to each Member Institution.

Schedule

Nomination Period: Now – 18 July 2025
Shortlisting and Interview: September/October 2025
Announcement of Results: October 2025
Presentation of Awards: November 2025 (tentatively)

Nomination & Submission

Each submission should include the following documents:

a. A completed Nomination Form (signed by 2 supervisors or management staff and 3 students | a template of Appendix 3 below is included)
b. Appendix 1: A brief Resume (one to two page(s) for each nominee outlining their qualifications and relevant experience)
c. Appendix 2: A Student Service Portfolio (refer to the Student Service Portfolio Guidelines) containing no more than 20 pages shall include:
   (i) Philosophy on student services;
   (ii) Student satisfaction rate on student services;
   (iii) Evidence-based supporting documents, such as policies / projects / cases / activities / and awards received by staff or students that demonstrate the nominee’s contributions and achievements in student services.
d. Appendix 3: Statements for Nomination (Staff and Students)
e. Appendix 4: Other relevant and recent materials deemed appropriate to support the nomination (Optional)

Nomination for submission is due on 18 July 2025.  Please refer to the E-Submission Guidelines for detailed procedures.

Shortlisting and Selection

  • Nominations will be reviewed and assessed by a Selection Panel. The Selection Panel may request additional information from the nominee(s), or other stakeholders, e.g., supervisors, students, peers who are familiar with the nominee(s).
  • Shortlisted nominees will be invited to present in the Selection Panel meeting. For Team nominations, Team Leader and all the members are required to attend and present in the Selection Panel meeting.
  • The decision of the Selection Panel will be final.

Selection Criteria

The Award honours professional staff (Student Affairs Officers, Student Counsellors, Student Advisors, Mentors, Coaches and Staff providing direct services to students) who consistently deliver outstanding services and contributions to students’ whole-person development, life and career planning, study needs as well as community engagement. Nominations should reflect initiatives that support students’ personal growth alongside their academic pursuits.  Adopting a holistic outcome-based approach with evidence, the nominees are to be considered by the nature of professions and evaluated for the award according to the following criteria:

  • Demonstrating a steadfast commitment to the holistic development of students by providing exceptional guidance in areas such as academic performance, emotional well-being, and personal growth;
  • Actively facilitating students’ life and career planning processes through organised career counselling sessions, internships, mentorship programmes, and conducting work readiness and value-building workshops;
  • Encouraging student participation in service learning and outreach programmes, thereby instilling a strong sense of community and social responsibilities among students;
  • Evaluating the ability to collaborate effectively with colleagues across departments to create a cohesive support system tailored to students’ needs;
  • Applying innovative strategies and practices to enhance the effectiveness of student services and improve overall outcomes for students.

Note: The selection is a holistic assessment based on the above five criteria, which carry no specified weighting.  Nominees are suggested to demonstrate and highlight their excellence in specific areas, supported by evidence, to the Panel Members during the selection interview.  Nominees are not required to meet all criteria simultaneously to be considered for the Award.

Composition of the Selection Panel

Chairperson: Student Affairs Specialists from Non-self-financing Higher Education Sector
Members: One Senior management / Department heads from non-FSTE self-financing Institutions (who can provide insights from an institutional perspective and understand the overall goals and strategies of student services)
One Professional in fields such as social work / social service / education / mental health (who can offer expert analysis of student needs and share best practices and resources from the field)
An Alumnus Representative from FSTE Member Institutions
Secretary: FSTE Secretariat

Awards

  • Three awards will be granted biennially.  Final number of awards will be subject to the decision of the Selection Panel.  Awardee(s) of each Individual / Team Award will be given a trophy, a certificate and a cash prize of $6,000.  Honorable Mention Recipients will be awarded a certificate of merit.
  • Prize presentation ceremony is tentatively scheduled for November 2025, details will be announced later.
  • Opportunities for Awardees and Honourable Mention Recipients to take part in sharing session(s) or related event(s) for the professional and teaching staff amongst FSTE Member Institutions.

Useful Documents

FSTE OASIS Criteria and Guidelines AY2024/25 (version: 2025.06.04)   
FSTE OASIS Nomination Form AY2024/25 (version: 2025.06.04)  
FSTE OASIS Student Service Portfolio Guidelines (Annex 1) (version: 2025.06.04)  
FSTE OASIS E-Submission Guidelines (Annex 2)

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the definition of two consecutive academic years? When do we start counting?

Take the award cycle of AY2024/25 as an example: at end of August 2025 (not necessarily at the time of submitting nomination), nominees who have been performing student integrated or supporting services for at least two consecutive academic years.

Can academic or teaching staff be nominated?

OASIS is designed for staff primarily employed as professional staff who have been performing student integrated or supporting services for at least two consecutive academic years. However, if academic/teaching staff carry a concurrent post title relating to/and directly providing student integrated or supporting services, the nomination will not be debatable. Should the nominee carry a title not relating to the Award selection criteria, it will have to be determined by the content of the submitted portfolio, subject to further information required by the Selection Panel.

Team Nomination - Do we need to dedicate a separate section to the Student Service Portfolio for each team member’s contribution?

Not necessarily but highly recommended you do, as this will help the Panel members to grasp how your team worked.

How many academic years we may include in the Student Service Portfolio?

To align with the eligibility of this biennial award, nominees may include achievements up to 2 academic years in the Student Service Portfolio.

Do I/we need to dedicate a section for each of the criteria (listed in the Student Service Portfolio to demonstrate my/our impactful achievements, i.e. (a) to (e))?

An overarching philosophy for the selected criteria and an overall summary of works contributed to the five criteria will be sufficient.

Any requirements for student nominators? Will current students or graduates be accepted?

Both graduates (of last academic year) and current students can be served as student nominators.  Take the award cycle of AY2024/25 as an example:

  • AY2024/25 students are acceptable.
  • Students graduated in AY2023/24 will be accepted.
  • Graduates of AY2022/23 regrettably will not be accepted.

Are there any differences in the Nomination (submission documents) for individual and team nominations?

  • The requirements of the nomination and documents submission are basically the same for individual and team.
  • For team nomination, the Student Service Portfolio, the Statements for Nomination should be completed from the team’s perspective. To facilitate Panel’s assessment. a brief resume of each team member as well as his/her contribution to a team must be submitted.
  • A statement addressing part of the team will not be considered as fulfilling the requirements; it must be for the entire team.

Do we need to encrypt video or image file(s)?

Presumably no confidential or personal information contained in the video or image file(s), they are not required to be encrypted.

How do we know the submitted files received by FSTE?

Files that you submitted in OneDrive will be removed after downloading by the FSTE Secretariat.  Please ensure that you submit the Submission Notification Form.  The contact person stated in the Nomination Form will receive a confirmation email a week after the nomination deadline of 18 July 2025.

Enquiry

Please contact FSTE Secretariat (Corporate Services) at OASIS@fste.edu.hk or 2573 0896 for enquiries.

FSTE reserves the right to change the above arrangement at any time without prior notice.