If there was one theme that united the winners of the 2026 Keystone Awards, it was that higher education continues to find ways to thrive, even in the face of enormous challenges.
Announced this week by Keystone Education Group, the annual awards recognise the students, educators and institutions making an exceptional contribution to higher education across the globe. This year’s winners reflected not only excellence, but resilience, creativity and a deep commitment to improving the lives of students and communities.
For those fortunate enough to judge the awards, including myself, the experience offered a rare glimpse into some of the sector’s most inspiring stories. The quality of submissions was exceptional, and the diversity of initiatives demonstrated just how much innovation continues to flourish across international education. Selecting winners was no easy task, with many nominations showcasing programs that are transforming lives in ways that rarely attract international attention.
That may be one of the greatest strengths of the Keystone Awards. While much of the sector’s public conversation centres on policy changes, funding pressures and student visa settings, these awards shift the spotlight back onto the people doing the work that truly matters.
This year’s highest institutional honour, Higher Education Institution of the Year, went to Luxembourg School of Business. Although one of Europe’s younger graduate business schools, it has rapidly built an international reputation through its small executive-style cohorts and globally recognised faculty drawn from institutions including MIT, Harvard and ESADE.
Rather than measuring success purely by size or rankings, the award reflects an institution’s overall impact on students and its contribution to higher education, a refreshing reminder that innovation often comes from organisations willing to challenge traditional models.
On the student side, few stories were more compelling than that of Student of the Year, Shiza Hirani from the University of Regina in Canada.
Hirani founded Youth MentorNet Café, a free mentoring initiative supporting newcomer, racialised and Indigenous high school students. Through workshops covering financial literacy, career planning and mental health, the program has already reached thousands of young people both across Canada and internationally.
It is exactly the kind of initiative that reminds the sector that leadership is not measured by titles but by impact.
International Student of the Year was awarded to Priscilla Jeyaraj, a Malaysian PhD Medicine student at Queen’s University Belfast. Alongside her academic achievements, Jeyaraj has played an important role building community among Malaysian students through the university’s clubs and societies network.
International students are frequently portrayed through the lens of economics or migration policy. Awards such as these provide an important counterbalance, recognising the enormous contribution international students make to campus culture, research and community life.
Perhaps the most powerful example of resilience came from Ukraine, where KROK Business School claimed Training Provider of the Year.
Operating under wartime conditions, the institution has continued delivering leadership development programs for Ukrainian businesses despite the extraordinary disruption caused by ongoing conflict.
It is difficult to imagine the logistical and emotional challenges involved in maintaining educational continuity while a nation is under attack. Yet KROK’s achievement demonstrates one of higher education’s defining characteristics. Education continues because people refuse to let adversity dictate the future.
Elsewhere, RMIT Vietnam received the Outstanding Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative or Project award for Hack The Gap, a student led hackathon tackling gender equity through creative problem solving.
The University of Bristol enjoyed multiple successes, with its Think Big Development Programme winning Outstanding Student Experience for supporting international scholarship recipients through leadership development, networking opportunities and structured personal reflection. The university also celebrated Outstanding Teaching and Mentorship recognition through Andy Radford.
The breadth of winners illustrates an important point. Excellence in higher education cannot be reduced to research output alone. Student wellbeing, inclusion, employability, community engagement and innovative teaching are increasingly central to what defines institutional success.
Commenting on the awards, Keystone Education Group CEO Fredrik Högemark said the winners demonstrated what resilience and innovation truly look like.
“At Keystone, we believe in celebrating institutions and individuals that break the mould to show how brilliant ideas and consistent effort can elevate higher education as a whole. This year’s winners in particular show what resilience and innovation in the sector really look like, from training programmes that continued as classrooms moved to shelters, to a hackathon that turned a serious equity gap into something students could play, debate and learn from. Congratulations to all.”
Those examples capture something larger happening across global higher education.
While governments continue debating migration caps, visa fees and regulatory reform, universities and students continue solving real world problems. They are creating opportunities for disadvantaged communities, supporting refugees, improving diversity, building leadership capacity and strengthening international understanding.
These stories rarely dominate newspaper headlines, but they represent the everyday work that gives international education its enduring value.
For the Koala, the judging process reinforced another encouraging trend. Increasingly, institutions are recognising that student experience extends well beyond the classroom. The strongest submissions integrated wellbeing, leadership, employability, inclusion and community engagement into the educational journey rather than treating them as optional extras.
That shift reflects changing student expectations. Today’s students want qualifications, but they also want purpose, belonging and opportunities to make a meaningful contribution. The most successful institutions are those creating environments where those ambitions can flourish.
The international spread of this year’s winners also highlights how innovation is no longer concentrated in a handful of traditional destinations. From Vietnam to Ukraine, Canada to Luxembourg, institutions are finding unique solutions to local challenges while producing ideas with global relevance.
That diversity should give the sector confidence. Higher education has always been strongest when knowledge flows across borders, allowing institutions to learn from one another regardless of geography.
The winners in the higher education institution & organisation categories are:
Higher Education Institution of the Year (sponsored by Keystone): Luxembourg School of Business
Outstanding Education Marketing & Recruitment Campaign (sponsored by UniQuest): Find your Path at Waterloo — The University of Waterloo
Outstanding Student Experience Initiative or Project (sponsored by Beyond Abroad): Think Big Development Programme — University of Bristol
Highly commended: Hope for Rohingya — Justice Parami University
Outstanding Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Initiative or Project (sponsored by Keystone): Hack The Gap — RMIT Vietnam
Highly commended: Themed Tea Parties — University of Chester
Outstanding Teaching & Mentorship (sponsored by Keystone): Andy Radford — University of Bristol
Highly commended: Shelini Surendran — University of Surrey
Training Provider of the Year (sponsored by FindCourses): KROK Business School
The winners in the student categories are:
Student of the Year (sponsored by FindAMasters.com): Shiza Hirani — University of Regina
Highly commended: Yevhen Kahanovskyi — KROK University
International Student of the Year (sponsored by Educations.com): Priscilla Jeyaraj — Queen’s University Belfast
Research Student of the Year (sponsored by FindAPhD.com): Liyan Ming — Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Highly commended: Raman van Wee — University of Oxford
Student Athlete of the Year (sponsored by Keystone Sports): Conor Gammell — University College Cork
Congratulations to all of this year’s winners, highly commended finalists and nominees. Being recognised among such an impressive field is an achievement in itself. For everyone involved in judging the awards, it was a privilege to witness firsthand the remarkable work taking place across global higher education.
For further information on the awards, see www.keg.com/keystone-awards.
