The University of Worcester is delighted to be sponsoring the Worcester News’ Education Awards once again, recognising the outstanding commitment of the headteachers, teachers, support staff and volunteers

who work in our schools and colleges.

It is a great opportunity to showcase the valuable work they do each and every day and to highlight the brilliant work some of the very best teachers in the County and the Country as whole.

The launch of the awards comes as the University launches its new Strategic Plan setting out its vision and values for the next five years. One of the key features of the plan is to continue to build on the

University’s huge success in educating the professionals needed to work in our schools, colleges, hospitals and businesses.

The plan also outlines how the University will navigate the turbulent national environment that the higher education sector, and the country as a whole, find themselves in.

John Bateman OBE, Chair of Governors, said: “This Strategic Plan summarises our ambition and our commitments going forward and recognises the outstanding work that has gone before

to transform the University from a small teacher training college into, arguably, one of the Country’s most inclusive and successful institutions.

“We believe that a university education both transforms the lives of individual students and the society in which we live, and our goal is to be engaged more productively than ever

in the city, nation and world around us.”

Founded in 1946 to ‘win the peace through education’, Worcester has become a thriving university for the 21st Century. It is home to Europe’s first integrated university and public

library and Britain’s first inclusive indoor sports hall purpose-designed to include the wheelchair athlete. The University is top in the UK for gender equality and is in the top 10 universities to best reflect society.

Worcester graduates are amongst the Country’s most employable and the quality of research being under taken at the University has soared.

During the next period, the University will build on these many successes to further improve the quality of courses, the skills of graduates and the impact in society. The University

aims to grow in scope as well as in scale. By the early 2020s, the University will further its excellent work in educating professionals to work in human health and wellbeing with the creation of the Three Counties Medical School to serve the people of Gloucestershire,

Herefordshire and Worcestershire. There are also plans in place to create the world’s first inclusive indoor cricket centre, which will help Worcestershire to become the national home of disability cricket, as well as a facility for the region’s children and

cricketers.

Central to the Plan are three commitments – to

create possibilities, to develop potential and to increase community engagement.

In

creating possibilities, the University aims to increase the numbers of students studying in areas with national employment shortages, including nursing and teaching, as well as opening up more opportunities for people from all backgrounds to have the

chance to study on a range of courses. The University will also continue to invest in its facilities to provide innovative and transformative spaces, which can be used by both students and the community.

The University is deeply committed to developing the whole person and aims to create and sustain the conditions that enable all students and staff to

develop their own potential. The Plan sets out how the University will continue to build on its deep commitment to supporting those with mental health difficulties.

A key feature of a University of Worcester education is the golden triangle of professional education, which interweaves expert knowledge and practical learning. At the three points

of the triangle are the well-motivated student, an inspiring educator, and an expert professional mentor. This new Strategic Plan sets out how the University will expand this highly successful model ensuring every academic course offers the opportunity for

students to access work experience, internships or placements.

The University has demonstrated the contribution a university can make to society through the accessibility of its facilities, which are public by design, its cultural resources,

raising the aspirations of children and young people and impacting on wider issues related to health, citizenship and community cohesion. In this plan, the University commits to further extending

and deepening its benefit to the region, the nation and the world, so that Worcester is recognised as the

exemplar of a community-engaged university.

In the coming five years, universities face an increasingly challenging external environment but the University of Worcester pledges, through this plan, not to compromise on its mission to inspire for life.

While the University is a very different place from the Teacher Training College founded in 1946, the character of the institution remains true to its timeless values. Now, as then, a close-knit and high-achieving

community, an approach that values every individual and the generation of knowledge that can be put to work in society, are the forces that drive the University forward.

Photo captions:

6,7,8 are a selection of ‘Then and Now’ shots