Sanaa Kazi: Winner of the Student Leadership and Enterprise Award at the University Alliance Awards 2026
The Alliance Awards is an annual event, which recognises outstanding contributions of staff, students and partners across the University Alliance member institutions. The 2026 awards ceremony was held at the University of Derby on Thursday 3rd September and there were ten categories that students could be awarded in.
This year, Sanaa Kazi, UWLSU’s VP of Activities won the student leadership and enterprise award - an award that celebrates ‘remarkable student achievement in leadership or enterprise’.
Sanaa’s achievement was for the innovation shown through the ‘Claude Littner Business Challenge’, a competition with a £15,000 cash prize from Claude Littner. This competition brought together 60 postgraduate students across two weeks, seeing them compete in business-related challenges.
We spoke to Sanaa about this incredible achievement to hear her thoughts:
How did it feel when you found out you'd won the Student Leadership and Enterprise Award?
“When I first arrived, I honestly felt quite overwhelmed. There were so many experienced people in the room, and I definitely felt like one of the younger people there. But a few people came up to me, asked about my work and made me feel really at ease. When I heard my name called, I could barely believe it. I never imagined something I had created during my MBA would be recognised on such a big scale”.
What does this award mean to you personally?
“For me, this award isn’t a place to stop. I’m really proud of it, but I see it as motivation to do more. I want to use every opportunity I get to create more opportunities for students, open doors for them and give back to the university that has given me so much”.
What inspired you to create The Claude Littner Business Challenge?
“While doing my MBA, I realised that there wasn’t enough hands-on, practical experience for Business students to really prepare them for the world of work. Students would often tell me in my capacity as a course rep that they wanted more opportunities to actually apply what they were learning. I remember thinking, if we need this, why not create it? And I wanted to do it not just for my cohort, but for students on a much bigger scale”.
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