We’ve been shortlisted in two categories in the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2016. Our double nomination, out of the 19 awards on offer, is for Outstanding Support for Students and Outstanding International Student Strategy. Widely regarded as the “Oscars of Higher Education”, we’ll find out if we’ve won at the awards ceremony in London on 24 November.
Outstanding Support for Students
Congratulations to our Outreach and UK Recruitment, Careers & Employability, and Student Funding and Access Support teams, who have been recognised for their collaborative work to develop enhanced support for care leavers.
The initial project arose from research undertaken by Advice and Information staff looking at some of the barriers students from a care background may face and how we could offer support to enable them to overcome those barriers.
This nomination recognises the enhanced support we have developed for care leavers, which includes establishing a relationship with students pre-arrival and informing them about the Care Leaver Bursary, going on to provide on-course advice, guidance and referral on a range of issues, providing named contacts, one-to-one advice, targeted communications, awareness raising initiatives and events.
The support provided during the 2013/14 pilot was so highly valued by those who used it that an additional named contact was added for 2014/15 to accommodate demand. Of the 39 students within the University confirmed as care leavers in 2014/15, 17 made contact with the service, with requests for support ranging from help with funding applications to housing and course problems.
More information on the support we provide care leavers can be found on the Student Support Services blog.
Outstanding International Student Strategy
Our nomination in this category is in recognition the Directorate of International Development’s (DID) work to increase our recruitment from Nigeria.
The British Council forecasts that Nigeria is among the world’s strongest growing markets. DID identified an opportunity to improve our performance in Nigeria, developing a strategy to increase recruitment from there, which has left a powerful legacy both in country and on campus.
We were focussed on diversifying our international student community, across different regions and subject areas; Nigeria presented an opportunity to meet these objectives. DID initiated a plan to become established as a high profile recruiter of outbound students, with:
- the opening of the University’s Nigeria Office
- a sector leading impact bursary of £3,000
- an innovative marketing approach to position the University in a crowded marketplace, including a branded bus which operated as a pop-up office so staff could meet enquirers in locations across Lagos
- a major push on in-country conversion activity
- the formation of a Nigerian Student Society and the hosting of high profile events for UK-based Nigerian students.
This work has seen an increase of 168% (from 65 to 168) in the enrolment of new Nigerian students from 2013/14 to 2014/15, with growth across all subject areas.
Congratulations to all involved in both of our shortlistings and good luck at the ceremony in November!