The University of Nottingham (UoN) was recognised at the Times Higher Education Awards 2015 on 26th November, winning the ‘Outstanding Support for Career Researchers’ award.
The Times Higher Education Awards website states that the ‘Outstanding Support for Career Researchers’ award is given to the institution that has “developed the most innovative or exemplary scheme to enhance and develop the transferable and careers skills of postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers”.
UoN faced competition from the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Manchester, and Surrey, and De Montford University for the award.
The Times Higher Education judges stated the University of Nottingham provided “real value to doctoral researchers across all disciplines and to businesses”.
“Researchers were praised as being ‘highly skilled professionals'”
The University of Nottingham’s win also celebrates the postgraduate placement programme, which allows research students to gain experience with over 100 local employers through projects including marketing, consultancy, product research and customer profiling.
Over 200 research students have benefited from the scheme, taking part in activities designed to develop researchers’ skills and problem solving abilities in a way that is beneficial to both themselves and local employers.
Researchers who took part in the programme were praised as being “highly skilled professionals who can be competitive in job markets beyond academia”.
“The support networks reach out to all sorts of career paths, not just research, and that needs to be commended too”
Second year English student, Louise Baker, said: “I think it’s great that UoN has been recognised for all the support it gives, but the support networks reach out to all sorts of career paths, not just research, and that needs to be commended too”.
The University was also shortlisted for three further awards: Entrepreneurial University of the Year, Outstanding Contribution to Leadership Development and Outstanding Employer Engagement Initiative, and was acknowledged for leading work in other areas.
Amy Wilcockson
Image: University of Nottingham via Twitter
