University nominated for award for most improved students’ experience.

Thursday 8 September 2011

The shortlisting for the Times Higher Award for ‘Most Improved Student Experience’ has been based on a poll of current students looking at their experience and opinions of being at Surrey. The winner for this award will be announced at a reception in London this November.  

It is a cause for double celebrations at Surrey as the University has also been shortlisted for the Sunday Times University of the Year Award, as a result of climbing a hefty twenty places up the league table compared to last year. The Sunday Times University Guide will publish this weekend.

The University has been successful this year in claiming a ‘full house’ of increased rankings across all the national Higher Education league tables including – The Guardian, The Times, the National Student Survey (NSS) and now the Sunday Times.

The university has been working hard to improve life for students on campus in a variety of ways and has just completed a thorough revamp of its approach. The developments to the first week for all students ‘Welcome Week’ mean that Surrey is now rated number one nationally by UK students - http://tinyurl.com/44qvcxl

David Dickinson, Director of Student Support, said: “Our shortlisting for this Times Higher Award is great news because it is a real, grassroots validation by our student community of the intentional work we've undertaken over the last couple of years to greatly improve our student experience.”

Other innovations undertaken at the University include an Employability Framework which helps students maximise on the experience they gain from part-time work for the University. In the pilot year, 93% of students felt more confident about using their experienced in applications and 90% felt they had a better understanding of their own employability.

In terms of communications, there is an improvement in raising awareness of key issues facing students, and a dramatic reduction in “spam” email that was previously unpopular with students. A newly introduced email digest of the news has proven popular with the students.

The Times Higher Awards represent a unique and high profile opportunity to celebrate the excellence and amazing achievements of UK higher education institutions.

The University of Surrey has also been nominated for the ‘Engineering Research Team of the Year’ for their smart phone-powered satellite project due to launch into space next year.  For more details see: http://tinyurl.com/4y8dyfy