Brookes’ summer of student success
An inspiring roundup of the recognition Oxford Brookes students have been receiving this summer
Awards, scholarships and recognition
It’s been a busy summer for Oxford Brookes students: travelling for scholarships, displaying student showcases, developing business ideas, and winning awards. To keep up, here’s a roundup of all the student success we’ve had so far this summer, demonstrating the excellent work making our students stand out.
Brookes wins at Formula Student at Silverstone
Oxford Brookes Racing
The Oxford Brookes Racing (OBR) team competed in the annual Formula Student UK event at Silverstone on 18 and 19 July with its car, ‘Sylvie’, and left the track with two awards: Engineering Design winners and Overall Static Winners.
Over 100 university teams take part in “Europe’s most established educational engineering competition” where teams design, build and race their cars. ‘Sylvie’ was unveiled at OBR’s launch event earlier this year in preparation for its 2026 competition season, showcasing the nine months of hard work that went into designing and building a brand-new car.
We’re incredibly proud of the team’s achievements and look forward to seeing how OBR does at Formula Student Germany in August. Check out OBRs Instagram page to see coverage of their time at Silverstone and to follow their competition season.
Oxford Brookes Racing Autonomous
For the first time, the Oxford Brookes Racing Autonomous (OBRA) team also competed and was a true star of the show. OBRA collected five trophies:
- Overall winner
- Overall dynamics winner
- Sprint winner
- Skidpad winner
- Endurance winner.
Congratulations to Autonomous on these achievements, in the team’s first year with its own car.
You can also visit the OBRA Instagram page to see their success at Silverstone.
Young Planner of the Year winner 2026
Congratulations to Clara Peirson, a first-year student on our Level 7 Chartered Town Planner Degree Apprenticeship, who has won the Young Planner of the Year award at the RTPI East of England Planning Excellence Awards 2026. The award recognises the outstanding contribution Clara has made in her role within the Energy Projects team at East Suffolk Council.
Enterprise Support Spark Summer winners
The summer edition of the Spark programme, a 6-week introduction to business start-up for students and alumni run by Enterprise Support, has finished and we’re pleased to announce that there were five winners of the Spark Award. Congratulations to Asia Sahota, Daniel Wald, Ilaha Mammadova, Abhinandan Patil, and Amir Godil.
Spark will resume next semester, with more opportunities to learn about enterprise and develop a business idea.
Good luck and have a great trip!
We welcomed a group of Brookes students as they set off on their journey to China. The group are all winners of a competitive scholarship and will be spending time with our strategic partner, Chengdu University of Technology, at its prestigious summer school. We hope they have a great trip!
To find out more about funded short-term and summer placements, you can:
- visit our Going from Brookes webpage and see where you could go
- fill out the expression of interest form so we can update you with the latest opportunities
- email the Global Mobility and Engagement Team to discuss your options.
Student Architecture
The Oxford School of Architecture’s end-of-year show has been recognised in the prominent Architects’ Journal by Alfred Yatlong Yeung, a London-based architect, researcher-in-residence at the Design Museum and mentor at New Architecture Writers. Alfred commended the display for its “industry realism while retaining creative freedom across its 11 interwoven programmes”. The show ran from 22 May to 20 June in the Abercrombie Building and showcased Architecture students’ creativity and technical skills across a wide array of projects.
From Oxford Brookes to Japan
Congratulations to recent Japanese Studies graduates who have secured places on the highly competitive Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme 2026, one of the world's largest international cultural exchange and language education initiatives. Their success reflects their outstanding academic achievement, as well as their intercultural knowledge, language skills and global outlook. They will be travelling to Japan in early August to work in public schools, where they will support English language education and be able to develop their own understanding of Japanese society and culture.
The graduates recently attended the Pre-departure Reception for JET Programme Participants, hosted by the Embassy of Japan in the UK and the Japan Local Government Centre London at SOAS, University of London, alongside Yumiko Ishiwata O'Meara, Lecturer in Japanese Studies.
We wish all the best to the graduates: Max Rowley, Adeline Cooper, Fede Newland, Harry Stewart, Carl Dowson, Maisie Sharp and Andy Witham.
Triple success at National AEME Student Awards
We are proud to celebrate three Oxford Brookes Business School students who were recognised on the national stage at the Association for Events Management Education (AEME) Student Awards 2026:
- Isha Lakhani, BA Events Management, was awarded Overall Winner: Best Professional Focus
- Olivia Wu, MSc International Hotel and Tourism Management (Events Specialisation), was awarded Overall Winner: Best Sustainability-Focused Student
- Le Bui, MSc International Hospitality Events and Tourism Management, was awarded Honourable Mention: Most Inspirational Student.
The AEME awards honour the UK's top events management students. Being named among the best in the UK demonstrates Isha, Olivia and Le’s exceptional achievements and highlights their professionalism and industry-readiness.
Photo: Isha Lakhani (left), Le Bui (middle) and Olivia Wu (right)
Interior Architecture students win national awards
We would like to congratulate Indigo Hancock, Adiya Orzhanova, and Aaliyah Benjuya, three Brookes Interior Architecture students, who won awards at the Interior Educators National Student Awards on Thursday 2 July.
Indigo was the winner of the Critical Writing in Interior Practice Award for completing students, while, for progressing students, Adiya won the Social & Cultural Agency Award and Aaliyah won the Spatial Experience & Interior Response Award. This is a fantastic achievement for the students, whose exceptional work has been recognised amongst undergraduate interior programmes across the UK and Ireland. It was also noted that Brookes had an exceptional representation in the shortlists.
The awards took place at MillerKnoll's Clerkenwell showrooms and their projects will now complete a year-long tour of locations hosted by Interior Education members along with the other submissions. Read more about the individual prize winners’ Interior Architecture projects.