St Mary’s Student Wins National Award for Masters Dissertation

A student at St Mary’s University, Twickenham has won a renowned and prestigious award from The British Psychological Society for her Applied Sport Psychology MSc dissertation.

Sunita Kerai, who is now doing a PhD at St Mary’s, was chosen for the 2018 Division of Sport and Exercise MSc Award for her research project ‘An exploration of the demands experienced by physiotherapists in elite sport’.

The research is original in that it provides a rigorous and critical examination of the demands experienced by physiotherapists who have prepared and worked with elite athletes at national and international sporting events, such as the Commonwealth Games, World Cup, Olympic Games and World Championships.

Sunita has been invited to present her work at the Division of Sport & Exercise Psychology Annual Conference 2018 in Belfast later this year, where she will be given her award of a certificate and a cheque for £200.

The award follows on from another she picked up at the St Mary’s Sport, Health and Applied Science (SHAS) Research Forum in November 2017, where she won an award in recognition of outstanding academic achievement within her MSc research project. She received the highest grade for her research project amongst all MSc programmes.

Building upon this success, Sunita is now doing her PhD in collaboration with the English Institute of Sport and St Mary’s to develop impactful resources to support physiotherapists working in elite sport.

Sunita said of the award, “Thank you to the British Psychological Society for choosing my MSc dissertation to win their annual award in the Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology. I would like to thank the lecturers who taught and supported me during my Masters at St Mary’s and a big thank you to my fantastic supervisor Ross Wadey, without him I would not have won this award”.

Sport Psychology Lecturer at St Mary’s Dr Ross Wadey, said, “Everyone at St Mary’s is so proud of Sunita for all of her achievements. It’s a pleasure to see her thriving, especially given her passion to support practitioners working in elite sport. She’s a joy to have in our Faculty and a pleasure to work with. She has a very bright future ahead of her and we eagerly await the next chapter of her story.”