Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) Award

Volunteering with Discovery gives you the access to apply to earn the university’s HEAR award (depending on the number of hours you’ve completed) which is eligible to all students in the university!

What is the HEAR Award?

The Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR) award is a formal university-verified document that provides records of your academic achievements or extra-curricular learning experiences at university.

The award adds more to your transcript than just grades, showing the extra stuff you do outside of class, enhancing your employability. You can apply for the award a couple of months before graduation.

It doesn’t matter if you haven’t volunteered with us for a while. As long as you have ever volunteered with Discovery while at university and meet the criteria, you should apply.

How It Works

There are three different awards for the HEAR award, namely Bronze, Silver, and Gold. The higher the award level, the more criteria there are to reach it. However, with Discovery you can naturally progress to achieve higher award levels without stress.

The Bronze Award

  • You must complete 50+ logged hours of volunteering with Discovery
  • You must write a 200–300 word reflective piece on your volunteering. You must reflect on the skills that you can gained through volunteering. Alternatively, you can submit a two minute video with you talking to camera about your volunteering experience and the skills you gained.

The Silver Award

  • Been an active Project Coordinator, a Discovery Ambassador or a Student Trustee.
  • You have completed 75+ logged hours of volunteering with Discovery.
  • You must write a 300 word reflective piece on your volunteering. Alternatively you can submit a three minute video with you talking to camera about your volunteering experience and the skills you gained.
  • You have attended all relevant meetings.

The Gold Award

  • Been an active Project Coordinator, Discovery Ambassador or Student Trustee.
  • You have completed 100+ logged hours of volunteering with Discovery.
  • You must write 300-400 word reflective piece on your volunteering. Alternatively you can submit a three-five minute video with you talking to camera about your volunteering experience and the skills you gained.
  • You have attended all relevant meetings.
  • You must have represented Discovery at two events. For the type of events see below.

Events to represent Discovery at:

  • Attending employability/ career fayres.
  • Promoting Discovery at lecture talks.
  • The Discovery fayre.
  • Speaking at Discovery webinars.
  • Representing Discovery on digital media in films.
  • Quotes about volunteering.
  • Doing Instagram/Facebook takeovers.

How Do I Apply?

To apply for the HEAR Award all you have to do is hit the criteria, write your reflective piece or film yourself on camera and then submit it to us through this form.

You can apply for the award a couple of months before you graduate.

We also hold information sessions about the HEAR award mid March in order for you to find out everything you need to know on this process! The are held either on Singleton campus or on Zoom, to follow this opportunity for future application purposes, head over to our Discovery volunteers platform opportunity page.