The University of Lincoln has been shortlisted for a national award in recognition of its growing reputation as one of the UK’s most entrepreneurial universities.
The University is one of six higher education institutions nominated for the title of ‘Entrepreneurial University of the Year’ in the Times Higher Education Awards 2013. The THE Awards, now in their ninth year, are a celebration of excellence across the UK higher education sector.
The Entrepreneurial University of the Year Award category “recognises a university that has developed an environment and culture that fosters enterprising attitudes among all members of its community and delivers significant entrepreneurial impact at regional, national and international levels.”
The University of Lincoln was shortlisted based on the enterprising environment it has developed through its award-winning Sparkhouse business incubation centre, and the innovative partnerships it has forged with major employers such as Siemens plc and Lincolnshire Co-operative.
Professor Mary Stuart, Vice Chancellor at the University of Lincoln, said: “We are very proud to have been shortlisted for ‘Entrepreneurial University of the Year’ in the THE Awards 2013. Universities are the engines of modern knowledge-based economies, and innovation and creativity are the fuel. At the University of Lincoln we aim to challenge the status quo and continually ask how we can better foster the culture of enterprise and entrepreneurship which is so fundamental to economic growth.”
Last year the University of Lincoln announced plans to establish a multi-million pound science and innovation park in collaboration with the Lincolnshire Co-operative and its new School of Pharmacy will move to the site in summer 2014.
The University’s relationship with Siemens plc, which in 2009 led to the creation of the first dedicated new school of engineering to be built in the UK for more than 20 years, has already been acknowledged as an exemplar of university-industry collaboration, cited in the 2012 Wilson Review of Business-University collaboration and securing a Lord Stafford Award in 2011.
Research by academics from Lincoln Business School into entrepreneurial learning has informed and influenced national and international policy on enterprise education, including the Quality Assurance Agency’s 2012 guidance on enterprise and entrepreneurship in higher education.
Students also play a leading role in fostering a culture of enterprise through membership of clubs and societies and engagement in the ground-breaking Student as Producer initiative, a national research project funded by the Higher Education Academy and led by the University of Lincoln.
Earlier this year Sparkhouse celebrated its 10th anniversary. In the past decade it has enabled more than 230 start-ups to establish themselves, creating almost 400 jobs.
Over all the University of Lincoln is estimated to be worth up to £250m to the region’s economy and to support around 3,000 jobs.
Winners of the THE Awards 2013 will be announced on 28th November 2013 at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane in London.