Northumbria University set to spend £17.8m on jobs

Feb 28 2009 by Nicola Juncar, The Journal

DOZENS of new jobs are being created at a North East university as it invests millions of pounds in a new recruitment drive.

Northumbria University launched its three-year £17.8m Strategic Investment Fund yesterday.

The fund has been set up to attract 70 top-quality academic staff with expertise in a variety of research fields.

The university says this drive will not only benefit its many thousands of students, but North East businesses and the wider community.

Northumbria’s vice-chancellor, Professor Andrew Wathey, believes this investment in research-driven excellence also demonstrates the university’s commitment to the regional economy.

He said: “This investment is intended to grow the university’s research strengths and to attract high-quality research-active staff to the North East, who will generate excellence across the board, not only in research, but also in teaching, innovation and employer engagement.

“We believe this investment will both enrich our research activity and build on our reputation for high-quality teaching.”

Northumbria is hoping the recruitment drive will help it build on its recent success in the national 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, RAE. Results announced in December revealed that nine out of 12 subject areas submitted by Northumbria University were judged to include work that was “internationally outstanding”. The move will also strengthen the university’s prospects in the Research Excellence Framework exercise in 2014, which is the successor to the 2008 RAE.

The investment will support developments across the university’s nine schools, which include Applied Sciences, Arts & Social Sciences and Newcastle Business School.

It includes the strengthening of the Centre for Renewable Energy, which will draw on the university’s expertise in the Built Environment and Engineering and the expansion of centres in Northumbria’s other established areas of strength such as law, design, health and the humanities.

Prof Wathey believes this important investment in academic staff during a period of economic downturn will provide further opportunities for research and training to support business at a difficult point in the economic cycle.

He said: “Coordination of the Strategic Investment Fund with the university’s major employer engagement initiatives will provide businesses with significant support to find innovative approaches and solutions to the challenges they face.

“Our priority is to encourage excellent, inter-disciplinary research that makes a real and lasting difference in society and the economy.”