Property consultancy firms sponsor student prizes

Posted 30 April 2015

Alumnus Anthony Atkinson, Rural Planning Director at Acorus, returned to Harper Adams University this week to present a student prize sponsored by the firm of property surveyors and planning consultants.

Acorus sponsors a prize for the best assignment submitted for the second year planning module, undertaken by students on Rural Property Management, Rural Enterprise and Land Management (REALM) degrees, Countryside Management and Countryside and Environmental Management degrees.

The winner of the prize, worth £100, was countryside student Hannah Clarke, 20, from Birmingham.

Module leader Emma Pierce-Jenkins said: “Hannah did a superb job at investigating a real planning application and analysing the different aspects of the decision making process, including attending a local planning committee meeting.”

“I am very grateful to Anthony and Acorus for sponsoring the prize, I certainly wasn't expecting to be picked to receive it,” said Hannah, who will be undertaking a placement year in a marketing role at WH Bond & Sons in Saltash, Cornwall.

“I’m very much looking forward to learning about the workings of a countryside business, and gaining valuable business and marketing skills that I believe I can utilise throughout my career,” added Hannah, who was captain of the Harper Adams University Women’s Rugby Club over the last year.

After the prize presentation, Anthony Atkinson gave a presentation to the students on examples of Acorus’s planning work.

Later the same day, REALM Course Manager Simon Keeble presented the second annual CKD Galbraith prize to Joanne Blakely.

Joanna won £150 for her outstanding work in the Valuation Principles into Practice module. The students had to supply a valuation of part of a farm and a development appraisal of some redundant farm buildings on the Battlefield Estate Shrewsbury.

Joanna, 19, a second-year rural enterprise and land management student from Southampton, will heading out in the summer to begin a one-year work placement with chartered surveyors Smiths Gore, based in their Kent office, before returning for her fourth and final year at university.

The CKD Galbraith module sponsorship was arranged via REALM alumnus Dougal Lindsay. The runner-up was Kirsten Wright, who received £100. Kirsten, 20, from Lincolnshire, will complete her work placement with Brown and Co in Brigg.