Times Higher Education Award nominations provide outstanding opportunity for BU to highlight its expertise in finance and research management.
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Times Higher Education Award nominations provide outstanding opportunity for BU to highlight its expertise in finance and research management. |
Bournemouth University has been recognised for the strength of its finance and research management operations in the 2011 Times Higher Education (THE) Leadership & Management Awards.
For the second year in succession, BU’s Financial and Commercial Services department is shortlisted for ‘Outstanding Finance Team’ with a first-time nomination for ‘Outstanding Research Management Team’ going to the University’s Centre for Research and Enterprise Operations.
The prestigious awards celebrate leadership, management, financial and business skills and showcase the extraordinary innovation, teamwork and commercial acumen of UK higher education institutions. BU has an excellent track record in the awards after being honoured in 2009 for ‘Outstanding Library Team’.
Susanne Clarke, Acting Head of Finance & Commercial Services, is particularly proud of the accomplishments of the two shortlisted teams which both work as part of her department.
“We have the strong support of our business partners in the schools and professional services which ensures our model is strongly customer focused. Align this with the highly professional, innovative and enthusiastic teams in Financial & Commercial Services and we have a winning formula”.
THE Leadership & Management award for ‘Outstanding Finance Team’
This award recognises outstanding work within finance departments, covering the 2009/10 academic year.
Building on the successes of the significant review and transformation of BU’s finance function that commenced in 2008, the team implemented further measures which have delivered in terms of record-breaking results.
The finance team has firmly embedded an ethos based around proactive and collaborative business partnering concepts. A high profile internal communications campaign repositioned the team as valued business partners to the University’s Academic Schools and Professional Services. Business accountants have also been embedded in each School and Professional Service, ensuring that trusted and financially qualified staff actively contribute to the development and secure management and each department.
Thanks to the financial developments and procedures, BU achieved excellent results for 2009/10 by recording its highest ever surplus of £8.2m; generating the largest amount of operating cash flow in its history and achieving increased cash reserves from £12.65m to £24.62m.
THE Leadership & Management award for ‘Outstanding Research Management Team’
This award recognises outstanding work within research management in the 2009/10 academic year.
A BU project to improve the management and infrastructure for research support was launched in 2009 alongside staff development initiatives and re-profiling to increase the success of research activity and outputs.
The creation of a centrally managed Centre for Research & Enterprise Operation, launched in 2010, provided the University with a seamless service to raise academics’ awareness of the research landscape, with trained officers becoming integral to improving ethics administration, financial administration, internal peer review processes and standardisation.
Excellent and sustained internal communication has lead to strong project management, continued collaboration and involvement from academic staff, and external recognition.
Such changes have resulted in more targeted and consistently managed approach to research bidding, improving BU’s success rate by nearly 50%.
David Willey, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of BU commented: “Our shortlisting for these awards is firm evidence of the ability, skills and dedication of our Professional Services staff and we thank them for their contributions”.
The THE Leadership & Management Awards will take place during an evening ceremony on 16 June 2011 at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London.
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