Leeds Arts University has been nominated for two prestigious Times Higher Education awards, recognising the strategic planning and technological and digital innovation of the University’s work.
The University has been nominated for two Times Higher Education Awards: the Outstanding Strategic Planning Team Award; and the Technological or Digital Innovation Award. The Outstanding Strategic Planning Award nomination is for the University’s strategic re-structuring of its libraries, exhibitions and archives in order to support its practice-based research. The Technological or Digital Innovation Award nomination is for the dissemination of the University’s research through open access technologies.
Widely known as the "Oscars of higher education" these are the 15th annual Times Higher Education Awards, with 80 universities competing across 23 categories.
Prof. Randall Whittaker, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Academic, said:
“As we prepare for a first submission to the Research Excellence Framework 2021 these national award nominations are an excellent recognition of the environment and infrastructure we have developed for practice-based research. We have placed such research at the heart of our teaching and University strategy so for a small, specialist arts university to be acknowledged in this way is immensely satisfying.”
The University has integrated its curation, research and library services in order to ensure these areas intersect to support practice based research. For example, library staff curate the Library Interventions exhibitions programme and all exhibition proposals are now rigorously peer-reviewed by an International Advisory Board for Exhibitions, as academic journal articles would be.
The Leeds Arts University repository allows global access to the University’s cutting-edge, practice-based research. The repository was developed in-conjunction with GuildHE Research, a consortium of small and specialist institutions, and allows best practice to be shared and innovative new ways of sharing research outputs to be explored. The University’s repository helps unique practice-based research outputs (such as exhibitions and artefacts) to be shared globally.
John Gill, Times Higher Education Editor, said:
"The THE Awards hold a place in the hearts of many in UK higher education and have now been a fixture in the its calendar for well over a decade. This year we decided to incorporate the complementary strengths of our THE Leadership and Management Awards, so that the range of categories better reflects the reality of how universities operate today, and the interwoven nature of so much of what they do. This will be the biggest celebration of higher education that we have ever hosted.
I am delighted to say that the ‘Oscars of higher education’ go from strength to strength. With 23 categories this year, we’re also showcasing more exceptional stories than ever before, and it’s a real honour for us to shine a spotlight on all those who have made it as far as these shortlists – their stories deserve much wider circulation."