BU receives top education honours from The Queen

24 February 2012

Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Vinney receiving the award from Her Majesty the Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh

BU visits Buckingham Palace to receive Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education.

Bournemouth University has been presented with their Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education - Diamond Jubilee Round - by Her Majesty the Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh.

The ceremony took place at Buckingham Palace on the morning of 24th February. Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Vinney, Chancellor, Lord Phillips, Dean of The Media School, Stephen Jukes, and Professors in Computer Animation, Peter Comninos and Jian Jun Zhang attended along with five students from our animation and visual effects undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

The Prizes recognise and celebrate winners’ outstanding work which is making a real and practical impact for the benefit of human progress. BU is recognised by the judges for “world-class computer animation teaching with wide creative and scientific applications”. This is further endorsement of the outstanding talent and achievements of staff, students and graduates in The Media School’s National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA).

As the 2012 Oscars approached on Sunday 26 February, over 70 BU alumni had worked on four of the five nominated films in the Best Visual Effects category. These were Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2; Hugo; Rise of the Planet of the Apes; and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. At last year’s Academy Awards, MA graduate, Andrew Lockley received an Oscar for his work on Inception.

Prize-winners received a silver gilt medal and certificate signed personally by the Queen. The certificate’s cellular pattern was inspired by a microscopic image of the structure of the “Queen Elizabeth” rose, bred to mark The Queen’s accession to the throne in 1952. The pattern communicates both the educational theme of the Prizes and a personal link with The Queen. This will be the first time that the design, approved by Her Majesty the Queen, has been used.

Prize-winning institutions will be able to use the Queen’s Anniversary Prizes logo for four years, as a hallmark of excellence.

About the Royal Anniversary Trust

The Royal Anniversary Trust is an independent charity - registered number 1,000,000 - concerned with the advancement of education for public benefit. It was set up in 1990 with the object of carrying out a programme of events and activities during 1992, funded and supported from private sources with official endorsement, to mark the 40th anniversary of The Queen’s accession and her years of service as Head of State. The Trust currently works to promote world class excellence in UK universities and colleges through The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education.

The Prizes are a biennial award scheme which is within the UK’s national honours system. As such they are the UK’s most prestigious form of national recognition open to a UK academic or vocational institution. The honour is distinctive in recognising the institution rather than an individual or team. The scheme was established in 1993 with the approval of The Queen and all-party support in Parliament.

All eligible universities and colleges in the UK are invited to enter the biennial rounds of the scheme. The assessment process is overseen by the Awards Council of the Trust which makes the final recommendations which are submitted to the Prime Minister for advice to The Queen.

News and Events

BU receives top education honours from The Queen