The University of Hertfordshire is the UK’s leading business-facing university and an exemplar in the sector. It is innovative and enterprising and challenges individuals and organisations to excel. The University is one of the region’s largest employers with over 2,425 staff and a turnover of over £234million. With a student community of over 25,100 including more than 2,900 overseas students from 120 different countries, the University has a global network of over 175,000 alumni. It is also one of the top 100 universities in the world under 50 years old, according to the Times Higher Education 100 under 50 rankings 2014. Awarded the prestigious title of Times Higher Education Entrepreneurial University of the Year 2010/11, we keep entrepreneurial activity at the heart of everything we do. The awarding body cited the University as a leading exemplar that truly practices what it preaches. With encouragement and support for entrepreneurial thinking, we support entrepreneurial staff and students by: Running an annual competition to award entrepreneurial ideas. Providing one-to-one mentoring and business advice. Providing a fund to support start-ups and spin-out companies. Courses Our courses are developed in consultation with business, industry, the professions and the public sector. Many of our courses also include placement opportunities, providing students with valuable experience and career advantages. We offer a huge range of courses across our ten Schools of study. Subject areas include Art and Design, Film, Music and Media, Business, Computer Science and Engineering, Physics, Astronomy and Maths, Humanities, Law and Education and Biological and Life Sciences and Health. We also provide preparation and foundation programmes and English language support. Courses start in September each year and some postgraduate courses also commence in January. The University is a member of the Hertfordshire Higher Education Consortium, which provides further innovative, high quality courses that support vocational higher education. Outstanding Facilities Our state-of-the-art Learning Resources Centres are open to students 24/7 to meet information, computing, study and coursework needs. Our £16m Sports Village offers some of the best university-based sporting and fitness facilities in the UK. Facilities include the 100 station Vision Health and Fitness Club, fitness studio, 12 metre high climbing wall, a four-net purpose-built cricket hall, squash courts, artificial and grass pitches, a 25 metre eight-lane swimming pool and a badminton court sports hall which also offers basketball, volleyball and netball courts. Our student entertainment facility the Forum has a total capacity of 2,000, and is a sophisticated venue with three entertainment spaces, a restaurant, a café and multiple bars. Our 460 seat Weston Auditorium plays host to the best plays, concerts and comedy the UK has to offer and our galleries offer a world class programme of visual arts exhibitions. Our staff 14 of our teachers have been awarded a prestigious National Teaching Fellowship, which recognises and celebrates individuals who make an outstanding impact on the student learning experience. To achieve this they would have had to of met three criteria; individual excellence; raising the profile of excellence; and developing excellence. More than 50% of our academic staff are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy, which provides national recognition for their commitment to professionalism in teaching and learning in higher education. Our research Our 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) results saw over 85 per cent of our submitted research judged to be of international quality in terms of originality, significance and rigour. We were ranked 58/163 UK Higher Education Institutions, an improvement of 35 places from our previous position of 93 and we were described as a “rising star” for our research performance by The Times Higher Education. We were awarded the European Commission HR Excellence in Research Badge in 2010 and are now one of only 50 UK universities with this accolade. Professor Geoffrey Hodgson, an Economist in the University’s Business School won the prestigious 2012 Veblen-Commons Award, once won by Nobel Laureate, Gunner Myrdal. Professor Hodgson is only the second European in over forty years to be honoured with the Veblen-Commons Award. Whether our research is helping the community, positively affecting the digital world, making a global change or bettering the environment, it is innovative, progressive, relevant and world-class. 10% of all known planets were discovered by University of Hertfordshire astronomers. University-designed meteorological and pollution monitoring instruments are now being used by researchers in the USA, Japan, and across Europe. The University has its fingers on a billion stars – it is the leading centre world-wide for modern optical/infrared astronomical surveying of the Milky Way. Our volcanic dust sensors are helping the UK Met Office provide vital information on the safety of UK airspace. KASPAR, our interactive robot, is helping autistic children with their social interactive skills. Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) researchers from the University are part of a new £1.2 million project, that aims to ensure that future robotic systems can be trusted by humans. Stopping the growth and spread of pancreatic cancer is the focus of a project led by researchers at the University and funded by the Association for International Cancer Research. Researchers at the University are leading two of the twenty-one new Government-funded projects into dementia research. The first portable, real-time airborne asbestos detector to provide a low-cost warning device to tradespeople has been developed and tested by researchers from the University’s Centre for Atmospheric and Instrumentation Research. University researchers produced The Cube, thought to be the world’s smallest eco-home, which could be the answer to affordable, carbon-neutral social housing. Our innovative use of technology to produce a smart InterHome was the winner of the Microsoft UK Imagine Cup. Inspiring the award winning BBC drama ‘Garrow’s Law’, our digitised free source for social history records, the Old Bailey Online, has attracted over twenty million people worldwide. Using a new computer model, we are helping farmers in Europe to find the right balance between environmental responsibilities and commercial interests. A team of researchers discovered a new form of resistance to the damaging pathogen that causes light leaf spot in oilseed rape, which impacts on the global bid to protect arable crops from disease. Our research into poverty and basic services is shaping policies aimed at improving the quality of people’s lives in the developing world. In 2007 University of Hertfordshire Racing produced the world’s first Hydrogen Powered Formula Student Racing Car. In 2009 University of Hertfordshire Racing competed with the world’s first Pure Electric Formula Student Racing Car.