Alumna Awarded Mongolian State Medal of Honour

University of the West of Scotland (UWS) alumna Uuganaa Ramsay has been awarded the Mongolian State Medal of Honour for commitment and dedication in promoting Mongol identity and culture.

Uuganaa was born in Mongolia and after winning a place on a teacher-training course she came to the UK, going on to complete the PGDip in Career Education and Guidance in 2006 at UWS. Uuganaa lives in Scotland and has worked at UWS as an Employer Liaison and Careers Adviser since 2021.

The honour was presented by the Mongolian Ambassador to the UK during the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of UK –Mongolian diplomatic relations in London on 27 January 2023.

I am honoured to receive the Mongolian State Medal of Honour. This recognition is for our Mongol Identity SCIO team around the world, standing up, speaking up and advocating for education and social justice.

Uuganaa Ramsay

An activist and published author, Uuganaa has made BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service documentaries and was invited to speak at a conference at the United Nations, New York in 2016. In 2020 she founded Mongol Identity SCIO with fellow campaigners to promote Mongol culture in order to eliminate the historical misuse of the word ‘Mongol’.  The organisations achievements include removing the negative terms ‘mongol’, ‘mongoloid’, and ‘mongolism’ from the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, keeping the appendix of geographical names in reference to people of Mongol origin and the culture.

Her memoir ‘Mongol’ won the Janetta Bowie Chalice Non-Fiction Book Award from the Scottish Association of Writers. Uuganaa started writing and campaigning in 2010 after the death of her son, Billy, who had Down’s syndrome. Uuganaa won the Scottish Asian Women’s Award for Achievement Against All Odds in 2014 presented by Nicola Sturgeon.

Find out more about Uuganaa and her book on her website: mongolmemoir.com