Teesside University’s strong sense of mission and its ambition for its students have earned it the top prize at the 51�Թ� Awards 2025.

The north-east institution was named University of the Year in recognition of the work it does serving an area hard hit by the loss of traditional industries.

With a student intake drawn overwhelmingly from disadvantaged areas, Teesside was praised by the judges for the role it plays in the regional economy and for its “laser focus” on meeting local skills needs.

The university triumphed in what was the 21st edition of the awards – dubbed the “Oscars of higher education” – which spanned 21 categories covering the full range of university activities. The winners were picked from 125 finalists and more than 500 entries.

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Held in Scotland for the first time, this year’s ceremony at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre recognised achievements at UK and Irish institutions during 2023-24.

In this period, Teesside completed an extensive campus redevelopment and achieved “triple gold” in the Teaching Excellence Framework but was also caught up in riots that spread across the UK in the aftermath of the Southport killings.

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When the university’s campus suffered significant damage in the unrest, community members came together to help clear up the debris, underlining the importance of the university’s civic role.

“The best universities have a clear sense of their mission and deliver on it – and Teesside University does this in spades,”the judges said.

�ճ�����ձᷡ��Outstanding Achievement Award went to Steve Smith for his lifetime’s worth of service to the higher education sector.

A former vice-chancellor of the University of Exeter, Smith was president of Universities UK when increasing English tuition fees was debated, and is currently the UK’s international education champion The judges said it was “hard to think of an academic who has had more influence on the course of UK higher education over the first quarter of this century” than Smith.

“This breadth of impact put him at the heart of major policy reforms that helped to shape the university sector as we know it today.”

University of Leicester scooped two awards: Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; and Research Project of the Year: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Liverpool John Moores University also took home two trophies – Business School of the Year, and Widening Participation or Outreach Initiative of the Year – as did Aston University, which won Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community, and Outstanding Technician of the Year for Jiteen Ahmed, the institution’s head of technical services in health and life sciences.

A new category, Specialist Institution of the Year, was won by Shropshire-based Harper Adams University, which serves the agricultural and rural sectors.

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�ձᷡ��editor Chris Havergal said the winners “stand as a reminder that university staff continue to excel across teaching, research and professional services, day in, day out”.

“This consistently high performance can often go overlooked amid a challenging environment in which institutions’ licence to operate is questioned seemingly daily – making it all the more important to salute such achievements.”

51�Թ� Awards 2025: the winners

University of the Year
Teesside University

THE Outstanding Achievement Award 
Sir Steve Smith

Business School of the Year
Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moores University

International Collaboration of the Year 
The Open University

Knowledge Exchange/Transfer Initiative of the Year
Lancaster University

Most Innovative Teacher of the Year
Jon Newton, University of the West of England

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Outstanding Contribution to Environmental Leadership 
Cardiff Metropolitan University

Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion 
University of Leicester

Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community: 
Aston University
Highly commended: Cardiff University

Outstanding Entrepreneurial University 
Imperial College London

Outstanding Estates Team 
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Outstanding Library Team of the Year
Royal Northern College of Music

Outstanding Marketing/Communications Team of the Year 
Loughborough University

Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year 
Michael Sweet, University of Derby

Outstanding Support for Students
Manchester Metropolitan University

Outstanding Technician of the Year
Jiteen Ahmed, Aston University
Highly commended: Helena Brown, University of Leeds

Research Project of the Year: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
University of Leicester

Research Project of the Year: STEM
University of Birmingham

Specialist Institution of the Year
Harper Adams University
Highly commended: Norland

Technological or Digital Innovation of the Year 
University of Cambridge

Widening Participation or Outreach Initiative of the Year
Liverpool John Moores University

Learn more about the winners in our special publication

Hear more from leading voices, innovative teams and individuals across the university sector, whose work has been recognised at this year’s THE Awards in this Campus spotlight collection.

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