Josiah Bugden, a medical student at the University of Otago, has won the Momentum student entrepreneur category at the KiwiNet Research Commercialisation Awards.
The recognition was awarded for CourseSpy, which started as a side project for Bugden and developed into a platform with over 250,000 visits, assisting students in making more informed and better decisions about their tertiary education.
CourseSpy currently features over 15,000 course reviews from all eight New Zealand universities and has supported numerous students in planning their degrees.
Frustrated by the confusion in selecting university courses and understanding degree requirements, Bugden set out to create the comprehensive tool he wished had been available to him.
Bugden, now in his final year of medical studies and currently completing a medical placement in Bolivia, was “blown away and incredibly grateful” by the recognition.
Over the past year, CourseSpy has introduced Mastery Modules — interactive, adaptive question banks created to help students navigate each lecture and enhance their long-term retention and academic performance.
Bugden aimed to sustain CourseSpy’s rapid growth by incorporating tutors and textbooks, further enhancing the Mastery Modules on its proprietary learning platform, and planning to expand internationally soon.