Senior Lecturer in Accounting and Taxation at the University of Winchester, Lim Keong Teoh, has been shortlisted for a prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) Award.
Lim, who loves to use gaming technology and real-world scenarios in his lectures, is in the running for Most Innovative Teacher of the Year at the 2024 awards.
In the classroom Lim uses a mobile phone app that places students in a virtual café where they act as waiting staff. If they answer questions correctly, they can restock food to serve their customers and win reward points.
The awards submission states that Lim: “… has dedicated himself to engaging students through innovative teaching methods and leveraging educational technologies to transform the learning environment. Teoh utilises tools at the forefront of teaching innovation. He embraces new technologies as they emerge, most recently utilising AI tools to guide his students to create multimedia presentations.”
Lim has already picked up one national award this year. In April he was named Public Sector Lecturer of the Year at the 2024 PQ Magazine awards where he was lauded for making accounting “engaging and fun”.
The PQ award was just the latest recognition in a successful 20-year academic career – in 2022 Lim was recognised with a prestigious National Teaching Fellowship for his outstanding impact on student outcomes and teaching in higher education.
Lim said: “We have students with a wide range of abilities, some from disadvantaged backgrounds, and taxation is a complex subject so I must use innovations to make the subject interesting and engaging.
“I feel very proud of my students’ achievements. Many of them go on to get jobs with the Big 4 accounting firms and compete on level terms with candidates from larger universities.”
An expert in UK taxation, Lim worked as an auditor with PwC, before becoming an academic.
“I really appreciate the University of Winchester supporting me. They have funded my teaching projects and innovations and allowed me to experiment with various cutting-edge practices,” said Lim. Sarah Moore-Williams, Dean of the faculty of Business and Digital Technologies at the University, said: “Lim’s a very deserving nominee for this award. Like all good teachers he is always keen to learn. He has embraced modern technology and adapted it in imaginative ways to engage his students and enliven his subject.”