Big wins

The university has received accolades from three prominent awarding bodies this month, recognizing achievement in a variety of areas, from the Engineering department to the Heslington East campus.

Times Higher Education, which last year named York ‘University of the Year’, this year gave the University the Outstanding Engineering Research Team of the Year award at a ceremony on Thursday 24 November.

In the same ceremony, York was also awarded through its participation in the Realising Opportunities Partnership, which was given the prize for Widening Participation Initiative of the Year.

York is one of 12 UK universities that join to make Realising Opportunities, a scheme that gives underprivileged teenagers a better chance to study at research-intensive institutions, like York.

The Archaeology department was awarded with a Queen’s Anniversary Prize, described on their website as “the most prestigious form of national recognition” that a university can achieve.
York has won the award four times in the last four ceremonies.

The award, which celebrates “work of exceptional quality and of broad benefit either nationally or internationally,” recognizes the steps York’s Archaeology department has taken to become an internationally renowned centre for archaeoological study.

Earlier this month, York were awarded on three counts by the Royal Institute of British Architects. Elizabeth Heaps, who has been overseeing extensions to the Heslington East campus, was named Client of the Year for her “infectious enthusiasm.”

The new campus itself was given two Northen Network Gold awards, the first for ‘Cluster 1’, the part of the campus built already, and the second for the Ron Cooke Hub.
Heaps cited the “rich variety of spaces, places and buildings on our new Heslington East campus” as the reason for the University’s win.