BU shortlisted for University of the Year

10 September 2009

BU is named as a finalist for top honours in this year’s Times Higher Education Awards

BU is named today as a finalist for two of the most coveted prizes in UK higher education – 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, 15 October.

‘University of the Year’
Bournemouth’s nomination for ‘University of the Year’ acknowledges the institution’s wide-ranging achievements of the last 12 months where its commitment to academic excellence has been at the forefront of its transformation into one of the UK’s leading new universities.

BU recruited 50 academics to key posts during 2008/09 (and 150 over the last three years) as part of its investment in established and potential areas of excellence. BU also launched and sustained a comprehensive and award-winning ‘Releasing Potential’ programme of staff development, one of the largest in UK higher education. This week, the University embarked on its latest phase of investment in academic excellence with the advertisement of 37 new academic posts.

Other areas for which BU has been recognised include:

Being assessed in the UK’s national Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) as the fourth most improved UK university in research quality, tripling its quality-related research (QR) funding as a result;
Appearing on the cover of Science for the first time through Professor Bennett’s research on hominin footprints and featuring in two further papers in Science, one of the world’s top two research journals;
Receiving the largest Research Council grant in the University’s history – an award worth over £6.3M to launch an Industrial Doctorate Centre in Computer Animation jointly with the University of Bath;
Rising in all four major UK league tables, in some cases above many older universities, and becoming the fastest rising University in The Times Good University Guide;
Featuring as the UK’s number one new University for the second consecutive year in The Guardian University Guide;
Launching a pan-University Centre for Well-being and Quality of Life;
Being awarded the highest level of confidence by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) for the maintenance of academic standards and the enhancement of quality across the University;
Increasing to 75% the number of graduates entering graduate level jobs or further study in 2008-09, one of the highest rates in the UK (up from 57.1% in 2004/05);
Refurbishing library facilities to create high technology learning spaces, winning the Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) large library award and receiving the inaugural THE ‘Leadership & Management Award for Outstanding Library Team’.

‘Research Project of the Year’
Bournemouth’s nomination for ‘Research Project of the Year’ recognises the achievements of Professor Matthew Bennett and his colleagues in the University’s School of Conservation Sciences.

Their work, with colleagues from the US and Africa, in discovering and analysing early human footprints in Kenya, led to the first ever paper by a BU academic in the prestigious journal Science – the first of three such papers for BU in 2009. Professor Bennett’s colourful laser scan showing footprints from the site featured on the cover of Science, another first for BU.

“Today’s announcement recognises a period of transformation for BU” said Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Curran. “Becoming a finalist for these two major awards reflects just how much our students and staff have achieved.

“We are proud of our strengths in education, research, enterprise and professional practice, and the growing international reputation of our centres of academic excellence,” he concluded. “To thrive in this very competitive world, we have restated our commitment to academic excellence and planned afresh for the future. I am delighted to say that these plans are coming to fruition.”

BU research heads cover of top journal