Strategic review:
A year of transformational change,
development, and collaboration
Read our full financial statements for 2020/21
A year of transformational change,
development, and collaboration
Read our full financial statements for 2020/21
This academic year is particularly special in seeing staff and students back on campus and I want to thank everyone in the university for all they have done during the pandemic. Their tireless work to support campus operations, critical research, teaching and the re-opening of our buildings and facilities in a Covid-secure manner continues to be a simply outstanding effort across the board.
We have supported our communities, partners and the global effort through the crisis: from our innovative saliva-based PCR test and developing and testing potential vaccines to hosting vaccination and testing centres. We have strengthened our commitment to making a meaningful civic contribution through Universities for Nottingham, as well as our estates development and widening participation strategies. Our research is also making a regional, national, and international impact by delivering economic, social, environmental, healthcare, and technological benefits. We have exceptional staff, an incredible portfolio of programmes and research, and an excellent strategy that has stood the test of a pandemic.
My optimism is tempered with the knowledge that the pandemic is not going away anytime soon. However, all over the world, we are learning to live with it. We will need to maintain the flexibility and agility that we have demonstrated since March 2020 for some time to come, but I know we will all continue to embrace opportunities presented by a changing world.
Professor Shearer West CBE President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham
“We have ended the year in as strong a position as we could possibly have hoped given the financial impact of Covid-19 on the university. This is down to the enormous amount of hard work of all of the university community – something for which I am enormously grateful.”
Margaret Monckton, Chief Financial Officer
“The university was very pleased to receive an unchanged S&P credit rating of A+ stable outlook in the summer of 2021 – this is testament to the approach that has been taken to how the university manages its finances and in particular how it dealt with the Covid-19 crisis.”
Margaret Monckton, Chief Financial Officer
“The university’s strong financial position will enable it to recover quickly from Covid-19 and there are some exciting opportunities in the pipeline that are now being pursued in support of the strategy.”
Margaret Monckton, Chief Financial Officer
Improving lives
While headlines over the past year have centred on the fight against the pandemic, our researchers have delivered outstanding work to tackle local and global challenges around securing sustainable food supplies, ending slavery, developing greener transport, and reducing our reliance on fossil reserves. Transforming healthcare with pioneering imaging and technology research to make smarter and trustworthy products for everyone also form critical aspects of our work.
Supporting potential
Our university strategy details our commitment to recruiting students and staff with the highest potential and a desire to succeed, and support them to ensure they achieve their goals, as well as local communities to encourage people who would benefit from our education. Tackling racial equality is a major priority: improving the reporting of hate crime, halving the awarding gap, and setting measurable targets to increase the diversity of staff had already been pledged by the university in 2020.
Campus life
Our campuses are known for their green spaces, hidden corners, diversity of landscape, planting and architecture and are home to over 4,000 students and staff. We are developing our campuses to answer the contemporary needs of staff and students, including new kinds of spaces; a secure and inclusive environment that supports the wellbeing of the community; an education that is more than a degree; and a rich and stimulating social, cultural and sporting life, open to all.
Sustainable development
We are a leading international centre for energy research, with a reputation for excellence across a broad range of technologies including bioenergy, energy storage, the built environment, and electrical grids. Our research achievements and practical actions on campus sustainability were recognised externally when the university was ranked in the top three most sustainable universities worldwide.
Embedding collaboration
The Universities for Nottingham Civic Agreement harnesses the collective will of the city and county’s biggest institutions to deliver economic, social, environmental, and healthcare benefits to the people of Nottinghamshire. Through this we are uniting with local partners including councils and healthcare trusts around a common civic mission to improve levels of prosperity, opportunity, sustainability, health and wellbeing for local citizens, families, and communities.
Our response to Covid-19
In a year once again dominated by Covid-19, we have been committed to supporting our communities, partners, and the global effort through the crisis – from our innovative saliva-based PCR test and developing and testing potential vaccines, to hosting vaccination and testing centres and supporting our students in financial need. Our asymptomatic Covid-19 testing service was recommended for government accreditation.