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Leeds Met wins gold and silver
15/11
View more images from the Times Higher Awards
Leeds Met struck gold in the category of ‘outstanding contribution to the local community award’ and ‘silver’ in the ‘university of the year’ category at the prestigious Times Higher Awards.
The community award, featured on the front of this week’s Times Higher, is in recognition of Leeds Met’s pioneering partnership with Bradford City FC, which helped save the club from collapse. The community accolade was the first award of the evening to be announced at the sparkling London ceremony, attended by 800 people.
Occasionally throughout the evening judges selected runners up and while the ‘university of the year’ category went to Nottingham University, Leeds Met was proclaimed ‘runner up’ for this award, being singled out for praise for its low-charging, high impact approach to fees.
A quote featured on page 14 of this week's Times Higher newspapers reads, "Leeds Metropolitan’s courageous – and successful – fees policy and development strategy would have been a worthy winner another year."
As Leeds Met’s Chancellor, Brendan Foster, who attended the awards ceremony, observed with all the experience of a world-class sporting champion, ‘It’s always better to come away with some medals.’
Bradford City FC was placed in administration two years ago, but Leeds Met stepped in to help with community engagement and brought it back from the brink. David Ward, a principal lecturer from the university, was seconded to manage the project at Bradford City while placement students helped provide facilities for the club and community. A classroom was created to deliver sessions to local children, a Saturday club was formed to provide football coaching, and £100,000 capital was secured, along with £100,000 a year, to set up the ‘Playing for Success’ study centre. Many other community events were organised and a charitable company was set up to help secure future funding for community projects.
The team from Leeds Met helped Bradford City reach out to the community, and now it is striving to continue that success on its own. Leeds Met’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor Steve Denton said: “These and other projects have started to change the image of the club into an inclusive organisation at the heart of the local community.”
Leeds Met continues to build partnerships with professional sports clubs. A pioneering partnership between the university and Leeds Rugby has seen the launch of the new Carnegie Stand, at Headingley Carnegie Stadium, which was renamed to incorporate Leeds Met’s Carnegie Faculty of Sport & Education.
Leeds Met’s unique approach, including partnerships and festivals, helped secure the nomination for ‘university of the year’. The university set its fees at £2,000 this year - £1,000 below the maximum - and is pioneering a unique low-charging, high impact approach as a university of festivals and partnerships which is increasingly offering students the chance to rub shoulders with champions while they study. Leeds Rugby, Yorkshire County Cricket Club, the Irish Football Association the Black Dyke Band are among the university’s wide ranging cultural and sporting partners. Leeds Met’s unique partnership with Leeds Rugby has resulted in the renaming of the world famous Headingley Carnegie Stadium and the development of the Carnegie stand, the first redevelopment at the ground for 70 years, which includes state-of-the-art training and coaching facilities for students to experience.
Leeds Met is also one of the few universities in the UK to have seen an increase in applications this year, reporting a rise of 10.8% while applications to universities on average dropped 3.4%.
The landscape of lifelong learning is constantly being transformed as the ‘Great North Uni’ becomes increasingly recognised as the educational equivalent of the Chancellor, Brendan Foster’s, Great North Run. Development at Leeds Met’s Civic Quarter is going forward at pace with permission being granted for the new Rose Bowl which will house Leeds Business School. It is also developing old BBC Broadcasting House to complement the latest acquisitions of Cloth Hall Court and the Old School Board.
The university’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Simon Lee, has paid tribute to all those students, staff, governors, alumni, partners and other friends of Leeds Met whose collective pursuit of the university’s vision has been acknowledged by independent judges. In his inaugural lecture two years ago, Professor Lee suggested university league tables could often be skewed by historical advantages, and something more akin to a cup competition would be fairer, where current performance is what matters.
Further success will be celebrated next week in Leeds Met’s eagerly-awaited graduation ceremonies.
