A free careers portal connecting international students and graduates with overseas employers has won the University of the West of England Bristol an award for best International Student Strategy in this year’s Times Higher Education Awards.
Presented at a glitzy black tie event in London, the accolade was in recognition of the GradLink UK website, which the university says has contributed to a one-third increase in international student applications in the last two years.
“Gradlink UK has had impressive numbers of students and employers use the service nationally and internationally, helping the UK retain its reputation for the employability of its graduates,” the judges said.
The website, which was formed through collaborations with careers services at UWE Bristol’s overseas partner institutions, has a network of more than 340 employers in Asia, Africa and North America and has had more than 180,000 visits since launching in June 2013.
David Gee, head of global employability development at UWE Bristol and creator of Gradlink UK, said the website has helped to establish the institution as “a flagship university for global employability”.
UWE Bristol’s GradLink website
“We are absolutely delighted that UWE Bristol has been recognised for the significant and pioneering work it is doing for international students,” he commented.
King’s College London took the International Collaboration of the Year award for its partnership with Sierra Leone’s College of Medicine and Allied Health Science, Ministry of Health & Sanitation and Connaught Hospital in Freetown, to support the development of sustainable health services in West Africa.
The project had a “profound impact” on people in West Africa during the Ebola crisis, Joanna Newman, vice principle international at King’s, told The PIE News.
It it also set apart by “the way it brings together lots of different actors that cover the whole picture: top medical experts from King’s, clinics with deep knowledge of Sierra Leonean issues and policymakers with the power to give governmental support to new healthcare infrastructures”, she added.
Overall, the hotly contested University of the Year title went to Coventry University.
The judges praised Coventry’s commitment to widening access to education, citing its lower-cost subsidiary Coventry University College.
Meanwhile, Newcastle University was named as the institution with Outstanding Support for Students, while Cardiff scooped the Outstanding Contribution to Innovation and Technology award.
See the full list of winners here.
