Nottingham wins 'Outstanding Alumni Relations Team' award

The University of Nottingham has won the Alumni Relations Team award at the Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards 2016. The awards, now in their eighth year recognise outstanding leadership and management in the UK’s higher education institutions.

The University of Nottingham’s Impact Campaign managed to meet its £150 million fundraising goal a year ahead of schedule in 2015 and now has its sights set on £200 million by 2017. It raised more than 10 times as much in 2015 as in a previous campaign in 2006 – the result of a strong commitment at the top of the university and a wide engagement in fundraising across the institution.

The university says that the effort goes far beyond the immediate development and alumni team and is a “highly inclusive aspect of university life”.

More than 200 staff and student “campaign ambassadors” have been signed up to help with the fundraising push, which raises money for research into cancer and dementia, as well as other projects such as widening participation. There is such buy-in within the university that 13 per cent of staff have themselves donated money to the Impact Campaign.

One of the ways that Nottingham raises money is through the Life Cycle initiative, which sees the vice-chancellor and other senior staff cycle across the UK to raise funds.

In 2015, it raised £360,000 to develop new brain imaging techniques to tackle dementia. It also spurred a £1 million gift for the Nottingham Children’s Brain Tumour Research Centre.

The judges said that the university’s campaign was “a great example of good fundraising practice. Of particular note is the commitment of the vice-chancellor, Sir David Greenaway, who every year gets on his bike and leads the Life Cycle event to raise funds for special projects at the university”.

Winners attended a black-tie event at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, hosted by actor and comedian Jimmy Carr, where over 1,000 guests gathered to celebrate outstanding performance in the competitive world of UK higher education.

The winners were chosen by a panel of judges including Alison Johns, chief executive of the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, David McBeth, director of research and knowledge exchange services at the University of Strathclyde, and Maja Maricevic, head of higher education at the British Library.

View the full list of this year's winners

For more coverage of the awards, profiles of the winners, and photos from the evening, please visit www.thelmawards.co.uk