The University of Nottingham has been named as runner up in The Sunday Times University of the Year.
Described as the embodiment of the modern international university — Nottingham is cited for its spirit of enterprise and innovation. There was recognition for the opening of the Nottingham University Samworth Academy (NUSA); the University’s extensive investment in aerospace research, bioenergy, biofuels, brewing technology research and food and drink processing; and for the encouragement it gives students to work and study across the world.
The University of Nottingham is still the only foreign university to operate an independent campus on the Chinese mainland and together with its campus in Malaysia offers its students unprecedented opportunities to study abroad.
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All this — together with one of the lowest drop-out rates in the country and a jump of 12 places in the National Student Survey — has put The University of Nottingham 12th in The Sunday Times University League Table of UK universities and university colleges — up two places from last year.
The National Student Survey rankings — a poll of all final year students at UK universities on their student experience — put Nottingham in 30th place with an overall satisfaction score of 87 per cent.
Professor Saul Tendler, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for teaching and learning, said: “As runner up in The Sunday Times University of the Year, Nottingham has been recognised for its commitment to teaching and learning and internationally renowned, world-class research. This result reflects our continued determination to build on our innovative and ground breaking research programmes and expand our already stimulating global learning environments.
“Nottingham’s partnership with David Samworth has already shown young people in Bilborough — an area with one of the lowest rates of participation in higher education in the country — how exciting and stimulating university life can be.”
The Sunday Times University Guide praises the opening of NUSA and its mission to ensure that candidates from all backgrounds can benefit from higher education. It states: “On many different fronts the University has placed itself at the cutting edge. Nowhere more so than in the establishment of the Nottingham University Samworth Academy.”
The new £24m school is a joint venture between the University and local businessman Sir David Samworth. Open to children of all abilities, it aims to bring universities such as Nottingham within reach of more children.
Across all three of its UK campuses investment continues apace — £90m is being spent on a new mathematics building, a learning centre for engineering and science, a new humanities building on University Park campus and a new Biosciences/Veterinary School building is under construction at Sutton Bonington. The building programme is the biggest of its kind on University Park in around 40 years and comes in the wake of the recent award-winning £30 million additions to the Jubilee Campus on the site of Nottingham’s old Raleigh factory.
With just under 49,000 applications for degree places this year Nottingham is the fifth most popular university in the country.
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More information is available from Lindsay Brooke, Media Relations Manager, The University of Nottingham, on +44 (0)115 951 5751, lindsay.brooke@nottingham.ac.uk
Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham, described by The Times as Britain's “only truly global university”, has award-winning campuses in the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia. It is ranked in the UK's Top 10 and the World's Top 75 universities by the Shanghai Jiao Tong (SJTU) and the QS World University Rankings.
The University is committed to providing a truly international education for its 39,000 students, producing world-leading research and benefiting the communities around its campuses in the UK and Asia.
More than 90 per cent of research at The University of Nottingham is of international quality, according to the most recent Research Assessment Exercise, with almost 60 per cent of all research defined as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. Research Fortnight analysis of RAE 2008 ranked the University 7th in the UK by research power.
The University’s vision is to be recognised around the world for its signature contributions, especially in global food security, energy & sustainability, and health.
More news from the University at: www.nottingham.ac.uk/news
University facts and figures at:
www.nottingham.ac.uk/about/facts/factsandfigures.asp