KPMG Inspiring Teacher Award in a First Year Undergraduate Program

The Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education) and KPMG are thrilled to announce that Milan Pahor, from the School of Mathematics and Statistics has won the 2019 KPMG Inspiring Teaching Award in a First Year Undergraduate Program. 

Now in its third year, the KPMG Inspiring Teacher Award has grown in popularity, with nearly 2,000 first year undergraduate student participants. This year 295 teachers received votes, demonstrating the great breadth of talented and inspiring teachers that UNSW is fortunate to have. 

Milan is an Education Focussed Mathematics Lecturer with 35 years of teaching experience. He received the Faculty of Science Teaching Excellence Award in 2012 and his passion for teaching has inspired The Milan Pahor Appreciation Society group on Facebook which has over 2,200 members. 

We spoke to Milan about why he loves teaching at UNSW and what it means to him to win the award. Watch the interview below. 

Here are some of the incredible reasons that Milan's students gave for voting: 

“Milan is the most remarkable and inspiring lecturer I have encountered at UNSW. His lectures were thoroughly engaging, delivered with immense clarity and confidence. His written notes, which were always provided on Moodle ahead of time, were incredibly easy to follow and understand.” 

“Milan cares about the progress of his students’ learning and teaches in a thorough yet inspiring way. He uses traditional methods of blackboard and chalk and always clearly conveys concepts to students with his explanations and examples and encourages them to actually be present in the classroom to learn.” 

“Mr Pahor completely changed my perspective on mathematics. Coming from a weaker mathematical background, Milan provided a great sense of encouragement and clarity when dealing with difficult concepts. This helped me to achieve a result far higher than I expected and I am now concentrating my degree in mathematics as a result.” 

“His dedication to math and absolute enthusiasm made me excited to come to each class as I was always looking forward to his amazing and engaging lessons. He helped me develop my algebra skills and further my love for math. Thank you Milan.” 

Milan will receive a $3,000 cash prize and certificate, to be presented at an awards lunch hosted by KPMG with senior representatives from KPMG and UNSW, leading industry representatives from his discipline field and representation from the students that made the nomination.  

Joining Milan in the group of top-five teachers voted for this year are: 

• Dr Nicholas Apoifis, School of Social Sciences 
• Dr Daniel Mansfield, School of Mathematics and Statistics (2017 recipient of the KPMG Inspiring Teacher Award) 
• Marc Chee, School of Computer Science and Engineering 
• And Professor Chris Tisdell, School of Mathematics and Statistics 

On behalf of the Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education), well done and congratulations to Milan and the other shortlisted teachers. 

View articles about previous award recipients.