Essex shortlisted for three Times Higher Leadership and Management Awards

Our commitment to delivering a transformational education for students; our determination to ensure fair treatment of all staff; and our ability to find new ways to connect students with employers led to Essex being shortlisted in three categories of the Times Higher Leadership and Management Awards.

Essex is nominated for the Teaching and Learning Strategy of the Year Award and the Workplace of the Year Award for our work across the University community. We also earnt a shortlisting for the Outstanding Employer Engagement Initiative Award thanks to the Edge Hotel School’s incredibly successful student consultancy project.

Teaching and Learning Strategy of the Year Award - We pride ourselves on providing a truly transformational education at Essex and we’ve put in place a huge range of actions to help further improve the student experience. This was made possible by academic departments and professional service teams working closely across the University plus a strong partnership with the Students’ Union. Our comprehensive curriculum review helped improve our course offer, and delivery and assessment of all taught courses. We also introduced new mentoring schemes, a personal tutoring system to better support students, and new Student Engagement Interns to improve welcome and induction. We’ve also introduced innovative interventions, toolkits, skills training and opportunities in order to improve student progression, completion rates, and employability. Better support for our academic staff has also been prioritised so they can focus on directly supporting students. Sharing good practice and success stories across our University is also helping drive improvements.

Workplace of the Year Award – Over the past year we’ve set the standards for others to follow on key workplace issues including closing the gender pay gap and treatment of postgraduates who teach. Alongside these two sector-leading decisions, we’ve put in place far-reaching policies to improve health and well-being which have built on our strong reputation for equality and diversity. As our Vice-Chancellor Professor Anthony Forster said: “Treating our staff with equal respect and dignity is at the very core of our values as a diverse and inclusive community.”

Outstanding Employer Engagement Initiative Award – The student consultancy project is at the heart of Edge Hotel School’s commitment to employer engaged education. Hotel managers and business owners put forward specific research projects for teams of Edge Hotel School students to complete in three months as part of their studies. The work aims to achieve genuine, lasting impact on each business. Student projects have ranged from a feasibility study on a £10 million spa at a five-star hotel to a media plan for a new top hotel opening in London later this year. The feedback from companies has been tremendous and many, many students have started graduate level employment after completing their studies with the company they advised.

• Find out more about the Times Higher Leadership and Management Awards 2017