ASRA News
ASRA Awards Winner Spotlight: Robert Bett
We were thrilled to speak with Robert Bett, who took home the Accommodation Hero of the Year award at ASRA Conference 2025. In our conversation, he offered insights into his award-winning work and what the honour means to him personally.
Robert Bett
Residences Office Administrator
Robert Bett
Residences Office Administrator
The University of Dundee
Congratulations on winning an ASRA Award! Can you tell us a bit about your role and your organisation?
I’m the Residences Office Administrator at The University of Dundee, so I help with the application/allocation process as well as with some of the admin and reception duties. I also help my colleagues in the Disability Services team to support students staying in our accommodation.
How did it feel to hear your name announced as a winner at the ASRA Awards 2025?
It felt great to find out I was nominated and even better to hear that I had won the award! I couldn’t attend the conference sadly but it’s really lovely to be recognised in that way regardless.
What does winning an ASRA Award mean to you/the team?
It’s been quite a difficult year so far across the higher education sector, so it was a nice boost.
How has this recognition validated the work you've been doing?
I know that it’s been helping to streamline some of our processes as far as getting support in place for students with disabilities and that’s pretty validating in itself but it’s a terrific boon to be recognised by a multinational industry body like ASRA.
Tell us about the project, initiative or work that led to your nomination. What inspired it?
We were looking for ways to improve our service and meetings with colleagues in the Disability Services team showed us that there were some things that we could do to provide support to students that didn’t necessarily require an assessment from a disability advisor.
How has your initiative or work improved the student experience?
It’s resulted in many students having vastly reduced wait times before having certain aspects of their support plan in place and has increased the likelihood that this will be done in advance of their arrival to their accommodation.
What advice would you give to others looking to achieve similar success in their own institutions?
Be open to new ideas and don’t be afraid to try new things. If something doesn’t quite work as planned, there will still be lessons you can learn from it.
Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you think the sector could benefit from?
It’s not always easy to coordinate between multiple teams/departments but it’s almost always worth it to work as closely as possible to make sure everyone is on the same page and to increase the general institutional knowledge of staff members.
Who would you like to thank or acknowledge as part of your success?
All my colleagues at The University of Dundee and our partners at other companies who help me on a daily basis. My manager Michelle for putting me forward for the award and my colleagues in the Residences Team, Charlotte and Michael, for making my life a lot easier with all their hard work.
What does ASRA mean to you?
It’s great to be part of such a large network of colleagues across both the public and private sectors which results in some really useful insights that may not be available to us otherwise.
Thank you to Robert for sharing his story with us — and congratulations once again on this well-earned recognition!
Joining ASRA
If you or your organisation are thinking of joining ASRA just go to our Membership Section for all the details on types of membership and how to connect with one of the biggest networks of student accommodation professionals in Europe.
