News and Events

People at the heart of BU award nod

13 October 2009

Professor Paul Curran in conversation with BU student

Vice-Chancellor credits people for putting BU in line for Times Higher Education (THE) Awards.

BU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Curran, has cited exceptionally talented and enthusiastic staff at the University as the reason why the University is in the running for two of the most coveted prizes in UK higher education.

BU is a finalist for the 2009 Times Higher Education (THE) Awards for ‘University of the Year’ and ‘Research Project of the Year’. The awards, considered the ‘Oscars’ of UK Higher Education, will be announced during a gala evening at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Thursday, 15th October.

Bournemouth’s nomination for ‘University of the Year’ recognises that the institution’s commitment to academic excellence is at the heart of its rapid transformation into one of the UK’s leading new universities.

“While some universities have concentrated their recent investments on buildings and other tangible resources, we have focused on the academic strength of our people,” said Professor Curran.

“For example, over the last three years, we’ve recruited around 150 talented academics, many of whom are leaders in their discipline. This has increased our research performance dramatically and our levels of student satisfaction are at an all time high.

“We’ve also engaged our academics in one of the largest staff development programmes at any UK university,” Professor Curran continued. “These changes have enabled us to deliver modern, professionally-relevant and demonstrably high quality education and research.”

During the last month, BU has continued to buck the national trend by announcing 37 new academic appointments across the University. The new posts come at a time when several universities and other employers are making significant cut backs.

The funding for these posts is, in part, a consequence of the University’s strong performance in last year’s UK-wide Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) from which BU emerged as the fourth most improved University in the country for the quality of its research.

“These new academic appointments will play an important role in continuing to develop BU’s reputation as a centre for academic excellence and will enhance the experience our students can expect from their time at BU” said Professor Curran.

Footprints lead BU to research prize shortlist