ANNUAL
REVIEW
2023
As we navigate the challenges of the past year, we find ourselves reflecting on some remarkable successes.
The achievements take on heightened significance when viewed against the backdrop of global events. Our community has rallied together to act for others, to think how we can best support those whose lives have been disrupted, to reverse the momentum of the cost of living crisis, to champion opportunity for all.
As we mark our 60th anniversary, we continue as a community that focuses on the possibilities ahead. Thank you for your hard work and dedication - we are an incredible force for public good.
Professor Charlie Jeffery, Vice-Chancellor and President
RESEARCH
Strength and depth of our research, across all faculties, continues to grow in record year
Inspirational and life-changing research
- Pioneering blood research: The Centre for Blood Research at York was launched. The centre will combine strengths in discovery-based science and epidemiology with clinical practice, to deliver real impact on haematological malignancies.
- Leading the way: Sticking plasters and systemic solutions, a new report from the the Cost of Living research group, was published. The study underlines our commitment to using research to improve lives across the UK.
- Nobel endeavour: Dr Richard Henderson, a Nobel Prize winner, officially opened the University of York’s Eleanor and Guy Dodson Building. The state-of-the-art building enables world-leading research to take place into the molecular structure of biomolecules.
“We’ve had a 21 per cent increase in research income - this is an exceptional performance.”
“We’ve had a 21 per cent increase in research income - this is an exceptional performance.”
The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Chloe Smith, visited the Institute for Safe Autonomy
The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Chloe Smith, visited the Institute for Safe Autonomy
The installation of the Biology art trail, which is a celebration of art, science and education in the biosciences
The installation of the Biology art trail, which is a celebration of art, science and education in the biosciences
Top photo: The launch of the Centre for Blood Research
Quote: Professor Charlie Jeffery, Vice-Chancellor and President
- AI innovation: The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology visited the Institute for Safe Autonomy to see the latest technological advancements in the development of AI and robotics.
- Sparked by curiosity: The Sparks initiative will aim to discover our next great research innovations. Three projects have so far been established.
- Unlocking research breakthroughs: We’ve joined a partnership with sustainability investor Greensphere Capital to launch a £150m fund. The financing will be used to commercialise solutions to the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.
- Skin health: Hull York Medical School launched a Skin Research Centre on campus. Research is aimed at improving skin health globally, leading to improvements in the diagnosis, treatment and care for patients.
- Going live: The University is leading the CoSTAR LiveLAB. It will develop technologies for future live performance experiences using virtual production, including arena-sized productions.
- Culture and community: Two major new projects - Next Generation Research SuperVision Project (RSVP) and Valuing voices for equitable and responsible research - are helping us to deliver on our ambition to develop a thriving research community and culture.
- Artistic endeavours: This year we’ve explored the role of art in sharing our research with a wider audience. The Biology Art Trail is a celebration of art, science and education in the biosciences. Art of Politics showcases artworks that reflect our ongoing engagement with themes of social change, human rights, injustice, inequality and development. And a recent exhibition in the Borthwick Archive explores Islamic art.
Research wins
Some of the major research funding wins across our three faculties included:
Arts and Humanities
- Professor David Stirrup was awarded £226,000 for Metis: A Global Indigenous People, exploring the mobility of the Métis people and their travel to and within Europe. An additional £60,200 was provided for the Indigenous Knowledges project, aimed at decolonising indigenous materials such as objects, images and archives.
- Dr Vincent Hughes was awarded £810,000 for the person-specific Automatic Speaker Recognition (ASR) project. The aim is to analyse the factors that make individuals easy or difficult to recognise within ASR systems.
Social Sciences
- The White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership (WRDTP) has secured a further five years of funding. The WRDTP is a regional consortium of seven universities with social science research excellence, offering PhD scholarships.
- Professor Joe Tomlinson has won a Philip Leverhulme Prize. He will be awarded £100,000 to advance his research in relation to how experiences of administrative fairness – and unfairness – shape wider public behaviours, such as trust in government.
- Professor Paul Revill will access a £600,000 award as part of a partnership working on the Thanzi la Onse (Health of All) research programme. The project is aimed at reducing health inequalities in East and West Africa.
Sciences
- A new Doctoral Training Centre in artificial intelligence (AI) to train the next generation of researchers and innovators will be created with £11.5m funding. The first cohort of students for the UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training in Lifelong Safety Assurance of AI-enabled Autonomous Systems will start in the 2024/25 academic year.
- The School of Physics, Engineering and Technology has been awarded £7.3m for YO-RAN, a wireless communications project focusing on the next generation of open radio access networks (RAN). An additional £3.1m has been awarded for connected project, REACH, focusing on delivering improved data connections in areas which regularly host high numbers of visitors.
- Professor Gavin Kearney was awarded £3.6m for CoSTAR LiveLAB.
Collaborative research with industry projects:
- From Chemistry, the York Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence is accessing £5.3m in funding as part of a collaboration to develop novel, sustainable polymers for liquid formulations. The York Plasma Institute is accessing £13.6m in funding as part of a collaboration aiming to speed up the development of fusion as a safe, clean and abundant source of energy.
- From Biology, Professor Ian Graham has been awarded £1.3m to research bioactive high performance ingredients for industrial processes. Professor James Chong has been awarded £1.3m to understand how microbial communities respond to design and process engineering in wastewater treatment.
Round-up
- Research record: £97m was raised in research grants, our largest ever total, an increase of 21 per cent (£17m) from 2021/22.
- New ground: More than 1,047 research and related applications were written and supported.
- Sustainability progress: Research sustainability contributed to York ranking 27th in The Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings for Sustainable cities and communities.
- Outstanding support: York received the European Commission HR Excellence in Research Award for the 12th year running.
EDUCATION
Teaching Excellence Framework award shows why our staff and teaching are the gold standard
Awards and rankings
- Golden wonder: Awarded Gold in the latest national Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), the highest rating possible.
- Top rank:15th in the The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024. Ten subjects in the top three in the Russell Group National Student Survey 2023.
- Green team: The Sustainability Clinic was shortlisted for a Green Gown award for Student Engagement. This will be credit bearing from 2023/24.
- Collaborate and listen: The Inclusive Learning team won a national Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) from Advance HE.
“Our TEF submission highlighted the enormous commitment and creativity of our staff.”
“Our TEF submission highlighted the enormous commitment and creativity of our staff.”
Photos: Outstanding teaching across all three faculties was rewarded with TEF Gold
Quote: Tracy Lightfoot, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching, Learning and Students
Initiatives
- CITY first: 64 students graduated from CITY College, University of York Europe Campus.
- Modules success: 80 students registered for the new York Interdisciplinary Modules for the academic year 2023/24.
- Grand designs: A new Department of Architecture and the Built Environment is being developed and will open in 2025.
Facilities
- Centre of excellence: Designs for the new Student Centre were submitted for planning permission and work started on existing buildings.
- Proud legacy: The David Kato College was officially opened, with tributes paid to the human rights defender and gay rights activist.
Community education
- On course: Our range of free Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has once again expanded, with more than 30 now available.
“Taking on the role of Chair of Council will be a new experience for me, but one which I will relish.”
“Taking on the role of Chair of Council will be a new experience for me, but one which I will relish.”
Dr Alice Maynard, Chair of Council and Pro-Chancellor
PARTNERSHIPS
Our partnerships and initiatives in the city, region and around the world, are creating new, exciting opportunities
- Doing the business: The Enterprise Works business hub has worked with 126 companies to offer business services and referred 114 for other University support, including Professional Development.
- Community support: Two new learning centres have been created in Hull and York to support children and adults.
- Pollution solutions: Researchers from Kharkiv and York will be tackling the many pollution problems faced by Ukraine as it battles with war.
- New ties: An agreement with O.P. Jindal Global University in India, will include PhD projects, academic research partnerships, and student exchanges.
- Global impact: The Centre for Health Economics has forged partnerships aimed at improving health in Central America and southern and eastern Africa.
- Eastern promise: More fully-funded scholarships will now be available to students from the Middle East.
- Collaboration: Two joint innovation hubs were launched with CITY College, Greece, and Makerere University, Ghana.
Photo: Visiting Kharkiv PhD students on a field trip
Quote: Professor Charlie Jeffery, Vice-Chancellor and President
“Our partnership with Karazin Kharkiv National University has already delivered great results.”
“Our partnership with Karazin Kharkiv National University has already delivered great results.”
“York’s academic strengths and achievements, and the platform that this provides to deliver public good, is what attracted me to York.”
“York’s academic strengths and achievements, and the platform that this provides to deliver public good, is what attracted me to York.”
Professor Ken Badcock, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost
OUR STUDENTS
Thank you to our students who continue to excel while helping us to improve and thrive and our Students' Unions (YUSU and GSA) for their invaluable support
- Top achiever: Mohammad Malik, a PhD student in Politics, was presented with the Achievement in Education award at the prestigious Yorkshire Asian Young Achiever Awards (YAYAs).
- Volunteering stars: Lauren Stanton, a 3rd Year MSci Psychology student, and Kashi Gill, a 4th Year Social Work student, were recognised at the Student Volunteering Awards.
- High impact: Meghna Asthana, a PhD student in computer vision science, was selected as one of the 75 India UK Achievers award winners.
- York pride: Winners of the Love York Awards included the Black Access Student Team, picking up the Liberation and Leadership Award.
- Volunteering: There were 21 volunteering projects, 1,223 volunteers, and 8,970 hours volunteered by students. Projects included the protection of hedgehogs on campus and donating blankets for palliative care across York and the UK.
“Our students in all kinds of ways play a vital role in inspiring and supporting our innovation.”
“Our students in all kinds of ways play a vital role in inspiring and supporting our innovation.”
York lost in this year's Roses
York lost in this year's Roses
Freshers' Festival
Freshers' FestivalFreshers' Festival on Campus West
YUSU Elections
YUSU Elections
The Love York Awards
The Love York Awards
Top photo: Students raised £15,000 for charity Survive
Quote: Professor Charlie Jeffery, Vice-Chancellor and President
- Roger that: In the YUSU Elections, Pierrick Roger was again voted President. In the GSA Leadership Elections, Mardan Nasier became President.
- Just for laughs: Both student unions hosted large-scale campus events. YUSU’s Comedy Night featured Taskmaster fan-favourite Fern Brady, Mock The Week’s Olga Koch, and comedian and drag king Jodie Mitchell.
- Club together: A total of £148,470 was raised through Raising and Giving (RAG), clubs, societies, volunteering projects and Colleges.
- Good sports: More than £15,000 was raised for charity Survive from the Roses annual sporting tournament. Lancaster extended their overall lead with a winning total of 200 points.
- Engine of change: Students petitioned for a change in the default search engine on all classroom PCs. The search engine Ecosia works just like Google, but all of their advertising revenue goes towards reforestation and afforestation projects.
“Everyone has had a different journey, but at York we believe passionately that it’s a journey that you won’t walk alone.”
“Everyone has had a different journey, but at York we believe passionately that it’s a journey that you won’t walk alone.”
Dr Heather Melville, Chancellor
(quote from 2023 Graduation speech)
COMMUNITY
The commitment, innovation and generosity of our community continues to motivate and inspire us in everything we do
Support
- Global crises support: How we rally together to help those most in need.
- Staff survey: One year on, progress continues on the outcomes from the Staff Survey. Working groups have been meeting to make progress in the areas of executive leadership, change management, workloads, and how we can build on our supportive culture.
Community engagement
- Big ideas: Almost 40,000 people attended 241 Festival of Ideas in-person and online events, with 233,000 website views across 151 countries. At York Theatre Royal, Michael Morpurgo retold an abridged version of his bestselling novel War Horse. Speaking about the Festival, he said: "Right from the start I knew it was special, unique even. An extraordinary variety of events and all done in a wonderful spirit. I didn’t realise to begin with that the Festival was open to all, that coming to see or hear or watch did not depend on being able to afford it. Everyone just comes because they want to be there, they are interested and expectant - I love that. I keep coming back because that spirit of openness endures."
- Full of life: StreetLife has continued to thrive with a range of workshops and memberships for regular users.
- Good to talk: YorkTalks topics included feeding the world with crop waste and bugs, single-session phobia treatments for children, to limitless clean energy production. The 2024 talks will take place on 10 January.
- Big effort: Staff and students supported The Big Community Challenge, helping to transform York’s wetlands and riverbanks.
“It is because of you that we have been able to make such a huge difference to the lives of people across the globe.”
“It is because of you that we have been able to make such a huge difference to the lives of people across the globe.”
Volunteers taking part In the Big Community Challenge, which helped to transform York’s wetlands and riverbanks
Volunteers taking part In the Big Community Challenge, which helped to transform York’s wetlands and riverbanks
YorkTalks was hosted in-person once again
YorkTalks was hosted in-person once again
Sam, a York Opportunity Scholar
Mamoon, one of our Equal Access Scholars
Louise Minchin at Festival of Ideas
Louise Minchin at Festival of Ideas
Top photo: Supporting the York Pride Parade
Quote: Professor Charlie Jeffery, Vice-Chancellor and President
Awards and achievements
- Nomination: We were shortlisted for University of the Year in the Times Higher Education Awards for our work on the cost of living crisis. Jason Daff, Horticulture Manager in the Department of Biology, was named Technician of the Year. We were also nominated for Knowledge Exchange/Transfer Initiative of the Year for Northern Accelerator.
- Award-winners: Our staff have continued to have an incredible impact across departments and schools.
Sustainability
- One vision: One Planet Week 2023 was about Land and Nature, including rewilding on campus.
- Hub help: The Student Sustainability Opportunities Hub was launched.
- Seven up: To mark York Environment Week, the University hosted more than 60 events.
- Green impact: The Sustainability at York Annual Progress Report was published, highlighting achievements from the 2022-23 academic year, including:
- 3,130 trees planted on campus grounds
- 52 per cent of main waste was suitably recycled
- 3.36 tonnes of carbon saved through a reduction in printing
- 18.7 tonnes of CO2e saved through power management in teaching rooms with PCs
- 895 actions completed by staff and students as part of Green Impact at York.
Equality and diversity
- Taking pride: Hundreds of students and staff supported York Pride, which included joining the York Pride Parade.
- Deserved recognition: The 2023 Inclusive Impact Awards included a Lifetime Leadership Award for retiring Academic Registrar Wayne Campbell.
- New voices: A new series - Be the Face of Your Story - was launched to advance and showcase the contribution of our diverse staff and student community.
Supporters
- Milestones: During 2022/23 York Unlimited reached £120m funds raised and 120,000 hours volunteered.
- Supporting scholars: Over 600 students benefitted from donor-funded scholarships.
- Giving thanks: 865 donors helped raise £309,846 in just 36 hours during Giving Day. Donations will help students and support mental health causes.
- Celebrating our Alumni: In the year we launched York for Life, the York for Life Alumni Awards were created to celebrate our alumni community across eight categories. These include Environmental Sustainability Champion Award and the Alumni Rising Star Award.
- Walking tall: Walkers took part in The Great York Walk, raising £10,000. More than 70 people signed up to walk or run 26.2 miles during York's Marathon Month to help raise £5,535. Funds were donated for Mentally Fit York.
Announcements
- New appointments: Dr Alice Maynard CBE became the new Chair of University Council and Pro-Chancellor. Professor Ken Badcock became the new Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost. Professor Ambrose Field was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor (PVC) for Global Strategy. Professor Duncan Petrie was appointed Dean of Arts and Humanities.
GOLD
status awarded in the latest national Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF)
15th
in the The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024
£97m
research income –
highest ever recorded
40,000
people attended the
Festival of Ideas
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