BU Achievements
Raising our profileOur corporate image has been transformed as we define what sets Bournemouth University apart. We have achieved a great deal in a short time through our commitment to excellence in Higher Education and our emphasis on creativity, innovation, partnership and enterprise. We have never been more popular amongst students with applications rising year on year and attendance at our Open Days quadrupling to nearly 6,000 in four years. Our increased visibility - locally, regionally, nationally and internationally - has been enhanced by our refreshed logo which rebrands the University as ‘BU’ and reflects the dynamic and forward-looking vision we’ve expressed in our Corporate Plan. The logo is prominently displayed on all publications and new signage on both of our campuses as well as our website which has been completely redesigned. BU also features on large advertisements welcoming people to Bournemouth and Poole rail stations and Bournemouth International Airport. Local buses carry a number of variations of the logo with news of our status as the UK’s Number One New University according to The Guardian University Guide (2009 and 2010). Academically, our research has achieved global acclaim following publication of the UK’s national Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). We are the fourth most improved University in the country for the quality of our research. The RAE also confirmed that BU is producing research of world-leading quality in 80% of the areas assessed through the exercise. Our experts in Conservation Sciences have been in the spotlight during 2009 after becoming the first from BU to have separate papers published in Science, one of the world’s most prestigious journals. Sally Keith, one of our fully-funded PhD students from the same field, published in the prestigious Proceedings of the Royal Society following her work on deceasing biodiversity in UK woodlands. Our largest ever research grant of over £6M came from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to establish a Doctoral Centre in Computer Animation jointly with the University of Bath. Professor Tim Darvill, Head of BU’s Archaeology & Historic Environment Group, led scientists and students in excavating a site among the stones at Stonehenge. The two-week excavation was funded by the BBC and the Smithsonian Network in the US, which jointly filmed the project for broadcast in the UK as part of the popular ‘Timewatch’ television series. Fellow archaeologist Dr Kate Welham is one of five directors of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, a major collaboration between British universities and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to unravel the development of the prehistoric landscape of Stonehenge. Two new cross-disciplinary Centres, the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Research and Education (CoPMRE); and the Centre of Well Being and Quality of Life (CeWQoL), based in the School of Health and Social Care, were launched. CoPMRE became the first postgraduate medical centre in Dorset. The ‘Streets of Bournemouth’ project, managed by BU and Bournemouth Borough Council, was awarded a major grant of £440,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This funding will help BU to create a new ‘virtual museum’ of Bournemouth in time for the town’s 200th birthday in 2010. Bill Bryson, the best-selling American author, is Patron of the project. Related Links: |
