The prestigious awards for Universities, Higher Education institutions and Further Education Colleges and Sixth Forms across the North of England are now open for entries.
The ENAs celebrate excellence, high achievement, and improvement across the North and bring together hundreds of academics, students, executives and business people as well as politicians to applaud the development and growth of the sector.
Four would-be entrepreneurs from universities across the North of England will once again face more than 400 academics, managers, guests, and industry leaders as they pitch their new business idea and wait for the audience to decide the winner.
The University Entrepreneurs Grant (UEG) will return on Thursday 18th April 2024 as part of the prestigious Educate North Awards and the winner will walk away with a £1000 prize to write a business plan and the chance to be mentored at the acclaimed Masood Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC) based at the Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester.
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The winners of this year’s Educate North Award have been announced. Lancaster University wins the University of the Year Award and Birkenhead Sixth Form College wins Further education College of the Year.
For full details of these and the other winners in a wide range of categories, visit https://educatenorth.co.uk/2023-winners/
They are the most prestigious and highly competitive educational awards in the North of England and now they are back and open for entries for 2022.
The Educate North Awards will see the North’s University, Higher Education and Sixth Form sectors compete across a range of specialist categories for the honour of picking up a sought-after trophy and being celebrated by their peers and expert judges drawn from across the region and the UK.
The awards dinner will be live again and will feature special guests and music and will be staged at The Midland Hotel in Manchester on Thursday 7th April 2022.
The categories and entry details are now available on the Educate North website.
Edge Hill University in West Lancashire was named University of the Year at a special online presentation in April this year before being named ‘Modern University of the Year’ by The Sunday Times.
Other winners included The University of Bradford, Newcastle University, Preston’s College, University of Manchester and institutions in Leeds and Chester.
The special Radio Awards, chosen by the listeners of Smooth (North West), Smooth (North East) and Heart (Yorkshire) will also return and continue to acknowledge outstanding contributions during the covid crisis.
‘The Educate North Awards are exceptionally competitive and cover the entire region celebrating resilience, improvement, achievement and excellence’ said Emeritus Professor Phil Harris, the Head of Judges; ’Now with radio listeners to 3 of the top stations in the country participating the profile and excitement around the competition and event is intensifying and growing’.
In the coming weeks more details about the Radio Awards, the entrepreneur competitions and the special live guests will be announced.
Educate North Awards were founded by the broadcaster Rob McLoughlin OBE and are sponsored by The Masood Entrepreneurship Centre at the University of Manchester, The Pilot Group, CCL Digital, IT Capital, Heart Yorkshire, Smooth North West, Smooth North East, CommunicorpUK and John Kennedy CBE.
They are run in association with Why Events, Don’t Panics and have been supported by Prolific North
Full details on the Educate North website.
To mark the sacrifices by the education sector, students, lecturers and academic staff during the Covid crisis, Educate North teamed up with listeners to three popular radio stations Smooth North West, Heart Yorkshire and Smooth North East.
Listeners inundated the stations with nominations for outstanding individuals or organisations in 3 new categories. The results saw one teacher dance and jig in his classroom as he became a winner.
Professor Tony Young, Head of Clinical Innovation for NHS England also announced 3 nominations for a special Health Award. This was won by The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine along with its partners at The University of Liverpool and NHS Hospitals Trust.
Among the many other winners was Edge Hill in Ormskirk, Lancashire, which was awarded overall University of the Year in recognition of its continued commitment to deliver an exceptional student experience.
The University was awarded the coveted top prize for the exceptional progress it has made to deliver investment and innovation over the past 12 months and its dedication to placing students at the heart of everything it does.
The University of Cumbria’s Festival of Mental Health won the community engagement award.
The Festival is a celebration of wellbeing and offers help and support to all through its array of workshops including gardening, mindfulness, yoga and creative arts. There is also an art festival, talks, and a ‘marketplace’ of local charities, organisations and institutions.
Raising funds for local charities, the festival’s patron is Wigton-born author, broadcaster and peer Melvyn Bragg, who is an honorary fellow of the university and a past president of the national charity Mind.
Coinciding with World Mental Health Day every October, the Festival of Mental Health strengthens the University of Cumbria’s role as a leading training provider of nursing and other health professionals across the region and beyond.
The Principle of Birkenhead Sixth Form College, Mike Kilbride, was honoured with the national award for outstanding leadership. The ‘UK Leadership Award’ was given in recognition of significant achievements in leading Birkenhead Sixth Form College on a complete journey of transformation, not least being rated as outstanding in all areas by Ofsted.
The college has been shortlisted once again for the UK Sixth Form College of the Year by TES Awards, formerly the Times Education Supplement.
It won the award just three years ago and this year’s shortlisting cements their place as a national leader in Further Education.
Although the Educate North Awards ceremony was honouring 2020 winners, with last year’s celebration being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, circumstances of the last year and more have brought into stark light the qualities of leadership required to deal with young people’s education and the deficits that they have endured during various lockdowns.
Both staff and students at the College have benefitted from what they called Mr Kilbride’s ‘strong, passionate and thoughtful’ leadership, and his communication with all parties about the direction he was steering the College through the pandemic has been highly praised by parents, with one saying it was ‘first class’.
Accepting the UK Leadership Award, Mike Kilbride said: “It’s obviously personally very gratifying to be recognised for the work that you’ve done over many years, but you can’t have success as a leader without a fantastic team behind you.”
The Educate North Awards are organised by Carm Productions in conjunction with partners John Kennedy CBE, CCL Digital, the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre, The Pilot Group, Communicorp UK, Heart Yorkshire, Smooth North West and Smooth North East. The full ceremony can be viewed below.