The 2026 Keystone Awards

• The Keystone Awards recognize achievements in higher education (i.e., post-secondary education), including professional-level education sectors also.
• We do not accept nominations for primary or secondary education (K-12) entries.
• Nominations entries are open to all.
• Entries are free of charge.
• Entries can only be made online by submitting information through the designated online nomination form, or for student award entries, you can either complete the online form, OR get creative with your nomination and submit it in one of the following formats: 
  
  • PDF, DOC, DOCX, PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF files are supported
  • A webpage or Blog
• Entries should provide as much information as possible, demonstrate compelling narratives, and be backed up by supporting evidence.
• We will collect information about the person submitting the entry and some information such as the name and institution of the person they are nominating.
• The deadline for submitting entries is 23:59 CET on Tuesday 31st March 2026 . Nominations submitted after this time will not be included in judging.
• Entries are limited to one entry per category per institution/student.
• Institutions can vote for themselves or their peers. They can also vote in student categories.
• Students can also vote for themselves and their peers as well as in institution categories.
• Should you experience any technical issues when submitting your entry, please contact [email protected], and a member of our team will help you.

Nominations are open for staff and current students who are either working or studying in the higher education, post-secondary, or professional education sectors.  

Students must either be actively enrolled and studying or have graduated in the class of 2024-25. 

Nominations can be made from any institution or student from anywhere in the world.  

Please provide the student or staff email address associated with your institution / organization on the nomination form for verification purposes. 

Yes, we do accept self-nominations. If you are nominating yourself, please only submit ONE nomination per category – duplicate nominations will be discarded.  

Instead, why not let people around you know that you want to be nominated? You can share details of any awards and commendations you’ve received with them, and point them in the direction of things you’d like them to include. This could be a fellow student or your supervisor for example. 

Yes!  We encourage you to nominate in more than one award category, if you have an appropriate nominee.  

You cannot however, nominate multiple times the same category – we are seeking quality, over quantity of nominations. Instead, encourage your friends and colleagues to nominate by sharing the awards webpage with them.  

Institutions can nominate in both Institution and Student award categories, and students can also submit nominations in both Student and Institution categories if they wish.  

Everything relating to your nomination is completed online, via an online nomination form.  

Each award category includes a set of questions you are required to answer, responses are set up as free text, aim to submit no more than 200 words in response to each question.  

In addition, we will typically ask for the following information as part of the nomination:  

• Nominee details (the person or institution you are nominating), such as full name, location, their email address, the institution they are studying at, the program they are enrolled on, and possibly their nationality.  
• Your details: your name, your email address (work or student email), your phone number (should we need to contact you).  
• Information about your nomination: We require responses to a few questions about why you are nominating 
• Supporting information: You will have the option to upload additional documentation or evidence to support your nomination if you have it available to you. 
  

For student categories, you will have the option to either submit the online nomination form OR instead, upload a creative nomination – see the next question for details about submitting a creative nomination.

Get creative with your nomination!  
We’d love to see your nominee’s story in a fresh and engaging way. You can submit a video, presentation, webpage, or any other creative format that helps bring their achievements and impact to life. Just make sure to cover all the nomination criteria so our judges can fairly assess your submission. Think about ways to show their personality, passion, and influence. This is your chance to make their story really stand out.  

We accept the following formats:  

• Document that includes a link to a video / URL to YouTube video
• Webpage – URL link to a webpage, or blog post.  

While this is optional, we strongly encourage you to upload supporting information.  

Strong supporting evidence makes your nomination stand out. Last year, we received many outstanding nominations, so submitting relevant materials is essential. 

You can include: 

• Testimonials (from students, peers, or faculty).
• Press coverage or media mentions.
• Links to videos, blog posts, or social media pages showcasing work.
• Photos of academic or extra-curricular achievements.

DO NOT submit CVs or full research papers – they will be discarded.  

Our judges want to see supporting materials such as testimonials from peers, students, teachers, press coverage, links to YouTube videos, photos of academic or extra-curricular work, publications, awards, and links to blog posts or social media pages. Don’t go crazy on the evidence though, we don’t want this to be a massive job for you (or our judges). 

There is room to upload additional evidence such as photos, campaign creatives, an event poster, campaign video link, etc. 

There is an upload option at the end of the nomination form where we encourage you to upload 1 file, ideally which has either links or images embedded within the document that relates to your supporting information.

The following file formats are accepted:

• PDF
• DOC
• DOCX
• PNG
• JPG
• JPEG
• GIF 

Please note, if you are linking to a video, upload a document with the URL web address linked to from the document. 

Yes! You can see some sample nominations here, to give you a better idea of the information and the level of detail our judges will be looking for when evaluating nominations:  

Yes. When you access the nomination form, you can change your answers until you submit the form. 

Once your nomination form has been submitted, you will NOT be able to make any further changes.

Should you experience any technical issues when submitting your entry, please contact [email protected] with details about your issue, and a member of our team will help you.  

If you see the success message at the end of the nomination form, then please consider your nomination submitted.  

If you submitted your nomination but haven't received an email confirmation within 3 working days, please check your email Spam/Junk folder – automatic emails sometimes appear here.  

If the issue persists, get in touch with the Awards Team at [email protected].

Nominations will close on 31st March 2026, at 23:59 CET.   

Nominations submitted after this time will NOT be accepted.

• All entries will first be verified to ensure the nomination is genuine and not duplicated.  
• Each entry will then be assessed using pre-determined scoring criteria, whereby points will be allocated based on the strength of the responses to questions and supporting information received.  
• Entries with the highest scores will be shortlisted.  
• The shortlisted entries will then go before a judging panel consisting of Keystone Education Group Staff and a jury of representatives from the international education community. The panel will assess and score the shortlisted finalists on the merit of their nomination against a pre-determined set of judging criteria. 

• We will endeavour to contact the person who submitted the nomination form via email in the first instance to let them know their nomination has been shortlisted. 

• If we don't receive a response via email, we will contact you by telephone (that is why we ask for your phone number on the nomination form). 
• You will have the option to select your contact preferences when submitting the nomination form, so you can choose if only you, or, you and the shortlisted nominee are contacted. 

The winners will be announced in June 2026.  

This will be during an online awards ceremony.  

More details on the award winner ceremony will be communicated soon.  

Yes!  

Each student award category will have a prize for the winner of that category.  

The prize is a voucher worth €500 (or equivalent currency) for an online voucher – such as Apple, Amazon or an airline flight voucher. 

For the Institutions Awards, the winners of each category will receive an award trophy which will be shipped to their business address after the winner’s ceremony takes place.  

 Runner’s Up in each award category will also receive a digital certificate.

You can see the list of the 2025 winners and categories in our press release, here: https://www.keg.com/press/keystone-award-winners-2025-announced 

Yes, you can download a range of banners and promotional assets for social media, email, and website on the Promotional Pack page. 

While this is optional, we strongly encourage you to upload supporting information.  

Strong supporting evidence makes your nomination stand out. Last year, we received many outstanding nominations, so submitting relevant materials is essential. 

You can include: 

• Testimonials (from students, peers, or faculty).
• Press coverage or media mentions.
• Links to videos, blog posts, or social media pages showcasing work.
• Photos of academic or extra-curricular achievements.

DO NOT submit CVs or full research papers – they will be discarded.