Writtle College’s claim to be the leading British academy for horticulture and other land-based industries has been further boosted by the success of one of its graduates.
Jacqui Jobbins, from Bradwell, has won the Masters prize in the Art and  Design section of the Landscape Research Group’s student awards. It is the second major industry award to be won by Jacqui this year.
Jacqui, who graduated last year with a masters in landscape architecture, had already won the student dissertation category in the last Landscape Institute awards and was runner up in the President’s Award.
She said: “Having my dissertation recognised by such a prestigious organisation is a great honour, and I am absolutely delighted to have won a second award for my work.
Jacqui’s dissertation questioned: ‘What is the ethical response, as landscape architects, to the relationship between society and the natural and built environments?’
Responding to the environmental and social challenges that face us in the 21st Century – such as climate change and finite resources – Jacqui’s study aimed to develop a new ethical approach to the design process.
She developed a methodology to assess ethical value during the design process, which focussed first on the natural, then the social and then the built environment.  The evolution of South Woodham Ferrers, and its 20-year local development Framework, formed the core of the study.
Jacqui was one of only three Masters students nationally to have won the award. She will be given £350, a year’s free membership of the group and subscription to its international peer-reviewed journal Landscape Research.