EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AND LEARNING

Our strengths at Loughborough are those that matter to students: top scores in teaching quality assessments, high placings in national league tables, and excellent graduate employment prospects. Ensuring that all students are offered the opportunity to achieve their full potential is a top priority – and our students succeed.

Rising in the League
Newspaper league tables once again showed Loughborough to be one of the country’s leading higher education institutions. Rising to 12th in The Times Good University Guide, the University gained top placings in the individual subject tables for Librarianship and Information Management, Anatomy and Physiology, and Leisure, Recreation and Sport. Rated 13th in The Financial Times table, our highest ever placing, the University also scored well in the graduate employment and income from industry tables. The Sunday Times University Guide likewise ranked us 13th and, recognising our outstanding record of teaching excellence, shortlisted us for their University of the Year award.

THE SUNDAY TIMES UNIVERSITY GUIDE 2003 TEACHING EXCELLENCE LEAGUE TABLE

1. 2. =3. =4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.   CAMBRIDGE LOUGHBOROUGH LSE YORK OPEN OXFORD IMPERIAL COLLEGE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON ESSEX ST MARK AND ST JOHN

A Taste of Student Life
The University opened its doors to around seventy Year 11 students from throughout the region during the summer, as part of a national initiative to give school children an insight into the many aspects of university life and to encourage them to consider entering into higher education. The scheme focuses on students who are judged to have high academic ability, but whose family and educational background is such that they might not consider applying for higher education at all, or if they do apply might only consider a limited range of institutions. The week-long programme, with a particular emphasis on science subjects, included lectures and laboratory work, team building exercises with the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, opportunities to talk to current students about life at university, and visits to local companies to find out about the types of graduates they employ and the jobs available.

Good things come to those who…
A new support card, produced by the Faculty of Engineering and the Mathematics Education Centre, is helping school students to master algebra, trigonometry and differentiation. Part of Engineering’s Good things come to those who… marketing campaign, the card presents many of the mathematical formulae that students will need during their A levels, in a handy ‘Z card’ format. Quantities of the cards were sent out to every school in the country and were well received by both students and staff. Following the success of the maths card, a similar one has now been produced for Physics.

School Students Celebrate their Success
Toys, textiles and tables were among thirty student projects on display at the University in June at the first-ever Celebration Day – a brand new initiative run by the Faculty of Engineering, designed to recognise the excellent design, technology and manufacturing work being carried out by Leicestershire’s GCSE and A level students. Overall prize winners were, in the GCSE category, Lauren Hubert from King Edward VII School, who designed an innovative travel game, and, in the A level category, Daniel Marshall from Burleigh Community College with his car side carrier.

David Wilson, Head of Design and Technology at King Edward VII School in Melton Mowbray, which scooped four of the eight prizes, said:

"The students work really hard on their design projects during their GCSE and A level years. Celebration Day has allowed them the opportunity to show off their achievements, and gain recognition of their talent from University academics, leaders in industry and their peers."

'WATS' at Loughborough for me?
The summer saw the launch of the Widening Access Through Sport (WATS) project, a six-week pilot initiative aimed at providing sport and education activity sessions for young people aged between 14 and 19 from black and ethnic minority backgrounds. Organised by the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences and funded by the European Social Fund, the project enabled around 20 young people from Loughborough’s Bangladeshi community to try a variety of sports on campus and undertake educational courses.

Outstanding Work Brings Success
The quality of our students’ work continues to be recognised with awards and industry praise. Recent graduate Matthew Hancock was awarded the Best Mechanical Engineering Student award at the Science, Engineering and Technology Student of the Year (SET) Awards for his final year project, devised in conjunction with Jaguar Cars. The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) Student Design Awards brought prizes for four students – Design and Technology’s Gemma Pridmore took top honours for her device to tackle the effects of fizzy drinks on children’s teeth, while Ben Manwaring was shortlisted for his anti-pickpocket back-pack for travellers; and LUSAD students Jude Young and Nicola Hilton won awards for their printed textile designs. Chemical Engineering finalist Richard Wilson became the seventh Loughborough student in succession to receive the Salters’ Graduate Prize, awarded to the student most likely to succeed in industry. Textiles students swept the board at the Bradford Textile Society Design Competition, taking ten awards and eight commendations for their designs, while the work of Rebecca Marshall, Katherine Walton and Claire Hart was selected by Volvo Truck and Bus Ltd for display at the company’s headquarters.

Burleigh Community College student Hitesh Patel who won an award at the inaugural Celebration Day for his hockey net prototype

The anti-pickpocket backpack design by Design and Technology student Ben Manwaring

Students at the ‘HELM’
A Loughborough-led project is seeking to boost the key academic skills of future engineers by helping them to improve their mathematical abilities. The three-year study – Helping Engineers Learn Mathematics, or HELM – is being conducted by Loughborough’s Mathematics Education Centre, in partnership with the universities of Hull, Reading, Sunderland and UMIST. With fewer students opting to study maths at A level and a high level of mathematical ability and knowledge needed in accredited engineers, the project aims to ensure that these requirements continue to be met by the UK’s engineering graduates.

MBA Tops the League
The University’s Business School this year won the esteemed Business Britain award for ‘Executive MBA Programme of Year’. Judged against criteria such as the variety of the programme, the resources available to students and the simplicity of the web site, Loughborough was presented with the award because of the suitability of its programme for managers, and its broad understanding of management issues at a senior level, along with the appropriate skills and techniques the programme provides.

A Graduate Recruiters’ Favourite
Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) once again show that Loughborough has one of the strongest records for graduate employment, with just 4.6% of our students, compared with 6.8% of graduates nationally, still seeking employment. The University also scored well in the HEFCE Performance Indicator tables, which show Loughborough to be ahead of national performance and also of the theoretical benchmarks set for the University.

Loughborough’s standing as one of industry’s favourite universities for graduate recruitment was confirmed by the ‘Graduates in the Eyes of Employers’ survey. The study of more than a hundred leading companies showed that 65% focus their activity on particular universities, citing the reputation of the university and the range of courses on offer as among their reasons for selecting their preferred destinations. In another survey of over 160 recruiters, university careers services and on-campus fairs were considered to be the two most effective ways of attracting high calibre graduates, with Loughborough’s Careers Service being ranked as the sixth best in the UK. Claiming the top spot for the second year running, Loughborough was named the employers’ favourite provider of civil engineering/construction graduates in the ‘From Learning to Earning’ survey. For General Engineering Loughborough was ranked second.
Both subjects were judged to add the greatest value to our graduates, meaning that students achieving average A level results can make the most of themselves by studying here.

“Loughborough comes out on top by quite a margin, indicating that it is the place to go if you want to make the most of your potential.”
‘From Learning to Earning’ survey'

Business School students on placement at Debenhams in London