Happy New Year everyone! As we step into the new year, we’re sharing five social responsibility highlights from our latest newsletter.

Firstly, happy birthday to us! 2024 is our 200th anniversary – a year-long celebration of our bicentenary. We kicked-off our bicentenary celebrations with a dazzling light display and a fun-filled evening of music, poetry, and performance. There are lots of activities and events you can get involved in to celebrate with us.

We were delighted to learn that we’re rated top in the UK and Europe, and third in the world in the independent QS World University Sustainability Rankings – based on environmental, social, and governance factors – echoing our performance in the Times Higher Impact rankings last year.

Also, we were proud to be awarded the Platinum Watermark for our sustained excellence in public engagement. This reflects the effectiveness of the ways in which we work to engage society with our activities in research, teaching and culture.

In November we won the ‘2030 Climate Action’ prize at the prestigious UK & Ireland Green Gown Awards in recognition of our forward looking and innovative work to decarbonise the University’s operations.

Get ready for an incredible week of giving back! Student Volunteering Week, which take place from 12-18 February, celebrates our student volunteers’ amazing work over the past year and provides opportunities for our student to get involved in volunteering. And finally, the Volunteer of the Year Awards are now open for nominations. Now is your chance to recognize our students’ efforts.

Read our January newsletter in full for more social responsibility stories.

Dr Julian Skyrme, Director of Social Responsibility