Best year yet is achieved at university (From Bournemouth Echo)

Best year yet is achieved at university

8:00am Thursday 7th January 2010 in

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Bournemouth University vice-chancellor Prof Paul Curran has hailed 2009 as the university’s “best year ever”.

He said: “We have come a very long way in a very short time and we have much more that we plan to achieve in the months and years ahead.”

Bournemouth was recently shortlisted for University of the Year in the Times Higher Education Awards, and was also in the running for Research Project of the Year.

The university also rose in all four major UK league tables, in some cases above many older universities, becoming the fastest rising university in The Times Good University Guide.

Prof Curran has presided over big changes designed to get staff more involved with research and business.

He has recruited 50 academics to key posts during 2008/09, and 150 over the last three years, and instituted a large training programme.

The university was recently judged the fourth most improved in the UK for research, and won its largest ever research grant of £6.3m to study computer animation.

It also featured on the cover of Science magazine, thanks to research on footprints left by primitive humans.

Prof Curran said: “I would like to extend my congratulations and gratitude to everyone at Bournemouth University for taking us to such heights over the last year.

“Our people were the key factor in our success. Their talent and hard work have certainly paid dividends.”