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The University of Nottingham has for the third year running been shortlisted in three categories at the forthcoming Times Higher Education Awards (www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/awards).
The Awards, now in their fourth year, aim to recognise ground-breaking work undertaken by UK higher education institutions, and winners will be announced at the Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London on October 23rd 2008.
The University of Nottingham is shortlisted as Entrepreneurial University of the Year — an accolade sponsored by the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship. Students at Nottingham have been declared national winners of Students in Free Enterprise in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. The University has launched award-winning spin-off companies and works with a wide range of businesses, including global brands such as AstraZeneca, Ford and Rolls-Royce. An Innovation Park for spin-off enterprise and collaborative industrial projects has been added to its Jubilee Campus, which is home to Aspire, the UK’s tallest free standing work of public art. It has innovative teaching and research campuses in Malaysia and China. The University of Nottingham Institute for Enterprise and Innovation runs programmes open to first-year undergraduates on all courses and enrolled 1,600 students last academic year. Postgraduates can enrol in cross-disciplinary degrees in entrepreneurship, and the University’s Ingenuity and enterprise support programmes are sector leading.
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An imaginative and successful language learning programme, the One Stop Language Shop, has secured The University of Nottingham a nomination for Outstanding ICT Initiative of the Year — sponsored by JISC. Until recently, e-learning at the University's School of Modern Languages and Cultures consisted of a few WebCT courses and a handful of enthusiasts. Now however, the One-Stop-Language-Shop, which has been set up with the University's Information Services, allows students and academics to access multimodal interactive language-learning materials through a self-access language-learning platform covering the 14 languages that are taught in the school. The One-Stop-Language-Shop provides development tools, self-test quizzes, games and activities that develop understanding of parts of speech that are based on text input by the user. Tutors need little technical knowledge to create content. In 2007, the tools were rolled out across the whole school and are now embedded in the curriculum.
Fast-moving behind-the-scenes films reflecting life in science and engineering have earned The University of Nottingham a place in the shortlist for Marketing Initiative of the Year. In the three days after it was posted on Nottingham's Test Tube, some 68,000 people watched a video showing the capability of flatworms to regenerate themselves. Test Tube aims to give students a behind-the-scenes view of science at the university by providing user-friendly and jargon-free video clips, lecturers’ notes, personal stories and biographical detail and testimony. The project is produced by Brady Haran, a BBC documentary and film-maker in residence for Nottingham Science City. Test Tube's content is also accessible through YouTube.
Ann Mroz, Editor, Times Higher Education, commented: “The Awards recognise the very best in higher education in the UK and we are delighted to announce that The University of Nottingham has made it onto the shortlist in three categories. Our senior advisory panel has been taken from all fields of academia and had to choose from hundreds of first-class entries — only the best made it through to our shortlist.”
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Notes to editors
: The University of Nottingham is ranked in the UK's Top 10 and the World's Top 70 universities by the Shanghai Jiao Tong (SJTU) and Times Higher (THE) World University Rankings.
It provides innovative and top quality teaching, undertakes world-changing research, and attracts talented staff and students from 150 nations. Described by The Times as Britain's "only truly global university", it has invested continuously in award-winning campuses in the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia.
Twice since 2003 its research and teaching academics have won Nobel Prizes. The University has won the Queen's Award for Enterprise in both 2006 (International Trade) and 2007 (Innovation — School of Pharmacy).
Its students are much in demand from 'blue-chip' employers. Winners of Students in Free Enterprise for four years in succession, and current holder of UK Graduate of the Year, they are accomplished artists, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, innovators and fundraisers. Nottingham graduates consistently excel in business, the media, the arts and sport. Undergraduate and postgraduate degree completion rates are amongst the highest in the United Kingdom.