Although there is lack of agreement as to what constitutes teaching excellence, there remains a steady effort to make an intangible, ambiguous, multifaceted concept incarnate in the form of "student-led" teaching awards schemes within higher education institutions. What teaching staff say about such schemes have largely been ignored. This article attempts to address this gap in knowledge by accounting for the extent that academic teaching staff at one higher education institution in the UK value and perceive their teaching awards scheme. At the same time, this article presents some challenges in implementing a student-led teaching awards scheme for higher education institutions.