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Royal honour for North’s most enterprising university

An announcement from St James’ Palace in London confirmed º£½ÇÖ±²¥ as the recipient of a highly prestigious national honour, a ‘Queen’s Anniversary Prize’, for its outstanding work in the field of enterprise and business engagement.

These much-coveted awards are part of the UK’s national honours and are the most prestigious form of national recognition for excellence in higher and further education. The Prizes recognise outstanding work at world-class level and are awarded biennially to only a handful of universities and colleges across the UK, allowing recipients to proudly use the Prizes logo for a period of 4 years to signpost their excellence to current and future partners, staff and students. As a national honour the awards are approved by Her Majesty The Queen.

º£½ÇÖ±²¥, which is built on the academic foundations of its predecessor institution Constantine College opened in 1930 by the Prince of Wales (who later became King Edward VIII) - boasts an excellent track record of supporting enterprise and works to promote entrepreneurship as a realistic career choice amongst its graduates.

Over the past decade, 430 new businesses have been created through its pioneering graduate enterprise and DigitalCity Innovation (DCI) initiatives, which have facilitated a vibrant start-up ecosystem in the North-East.

The University’s Vice-Chancellor & Chief Executive, Professor Graham Henderson CBE DL will lead an exclusive delegation from the University at a national gala presentation banquet at the Guild Hall in London in February and will then attend Buckingham Palace the following day to be formally presented with the award by Her Majesty The Queen.

Professor Henderson said: 'This accolade is recognition of the way in which my University’s academic expertise, coupled with our knowledge transfer, business support and enterprise services, has supported the creation of a digital media ‘super-cluster’ on º£½ÇÖ±²¥ to reposition and re-ignite our regional economy. This is a truly wonderful award and will serve as a real incentive to everyone involved with this type of work in the future.

'I have followed the Queen's Anniversary Prizes for many years and marvelled at the world-class quality of the university and college winners. To join that group, in an area so central to our mission of supporting the digital sector and developing highly-employable graduates, is a source of huge pride to the whole º£½ÇÖ±²¥ community.'

The prizes scheme is administered by the Royal Anniversary Trust and was established in 1990 with the approval of The Queen and all-party support in Parliament. The assessment process is overseen by the Trust which makes the final recommendations to the Prime Minister for advice to The Queen.

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