Context

Whilst the last five years have been a period of considerable success for Edge Hill University, culminating in the award of university status in May 2006, our recent success is more deeply rooted. Fifteen years ago Edge Hill College of Higher Education was a potentially vulnerable institution with fewer than 4,000 students, no cash reserves (and annual deficits), and having had no capital investment in new buildings for over two decades. For more than half this period no new degree programmes had been validated, the (then) College had no Faculty of Health and Social Care and very little presence in the Secondary Teacher Training or Professional Development market, and external assessments of academic quality were typically only adequate overall.

In 1992 the Further and Higher Education Act granted university status to those higher education institutions removed from local authority control in 1989 subject to them meeting certain threshold criteria (more than 4,000 FTE students, more than 3,000 FTE on degree level programmes, more than 300 FTEs in the majority of academic subject categories, and accredited status). Edge Hill College of Higher Education failed to meet those threshold criteria and therefore faced an uncertain future.

A major programme of academic development and infrastructure investment, and significant improvements in academic quality outcomes, market penetration and financial performance, has transformed this position. In the past decade external quality scores resulted in "excellent" outcomes in two-thirds of all QAA quality assessments. In addition to now being the United Kingdom's largest provider of education and training for the whole school (and pre-school) workforce, the University was the first provider to be graded "outstanding" for the management and quality assurance of its work in Initial Teacher Training, and was the highest rated provider of nursing, midwifery, health care and operating department practitioner training in the Strategic Health Authority in QAA/NMC Reviews in both 1999 and 2004.

Over £90m has been invested in the built environment, three-quarters of this capital spend being generated from revenue sources, with new buildings for Design and Technology, Mathematics, Natural, Applied and Geographical Sciences, Business, Management and Law, Information Systems, Media and Communications, Education, Health, Performing Arts and Sports Science and Sports Therapy, a new Learning Resource Centre and a new Learning Innovation Centre, and a 300-bed residential complex.

In addition to the now-complete Western Campus, which provides an excellent lakeside environment for study and work, in 1997 the University invested over £4m in new on-campus sports facilities, and in 2007 acquired 84 acres of land - effectively more than doubling the institution's footprint - to the immediate east of and contiguous with the campus, providing the physical capacity for the expansion of the University for the next thirty years. We have also sought to strengthen an already commendable reputation for learning and teaching, with the development of our HEFCE-supported Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, SOLSTICE.

Throughout this period, the University has worked hard to grow and develop its income lines and strengthen its financial position. Turnover has grown in recent years by up to 20% per annum, surpluses for reinvestment have been consistently in the upper quartile for the sector, with all capital investment "on balance sheet", and debt charges have been kept below 4% of turnover.

In August 2008, after a very rigorous scrutiny process, we became one of the first new universities in the country to be awarded Research Degree Awarding Powers. This will ensure that we sustain the outstanding growth in demand for University places and the University's broader range of activity.

Recent years have seen a sustained period of continued development of the curriculum and growth in student numbers. New honours degrees in Accountancy, Biology, Creative Writing, Dance, Early Childhood Studies, Film Studies, Film and Television Production, Law and Women's Health have been introduced, alongside the development of a suite of diversified Sports related provision. Following the introduction of Foundation Degrees (FDs), the University now has over 700 FD students across its three faculties. Postgraduate provision has expanded, particularly in areas related to Professional Development in Health and Education, and the Faculty of Education is the largest national provider of postgraduate professional development (PPD) for teachers. UCAS applications for undergraduate provision have grown from 4,800 to over 12,000 over the period. The development of the portfolio has been supported by the 2003 academic restructuring, which brought together all academic provision from five Schools into three Faculties: Arts and Sciences, Health and Education. The Faculty of Health and Social Care moved its principal base from Aintree to a new £14m building on the Ormskirk Campus in late 2007.

The University therefore enters the next quinquennium in a position of considerable strength, and on the back of a 147% growth in applications in the past seven years. In 2007 we were shortlisted for the Times Higher University of the Year, having won the Times Higher Award for Outstanding Student Financial Support in the preceding year. In 2007 the University was also placed in the top twenty of all English universities in the National Student Survey, second in the North West region (and top on two of the seven measures) and fourth in the country for students' personal development.

Nonetheless there are challenges ahead. The excellence of the University's performance is not yet fully reflected in many league tables (with their focus on often dated measures of, for example, RAE performance, revenue spend and student: staff ratios), and, rightly, the expectations placed on Edge Hill as it becomes a respected University are greater than those placed on a college of higher education.

And, whilst we have a reputation for excellence in certain disciplines and within our region, it is essential that we expand this base more broadly.

The need for continued progress is exacerbated by the rapidly changing climate in which we operate. The 18-21 age cohort will decline by 16% during the next decade and, although this is differentiated significantly by social class, the University's excellent reputation for widening participation and achievement means that we recruit substantial numbers of students from low participation neighbourhoods and social groups.

The University will not demur from this continuing ideological commitment, but recognises that this is a necessary but not, in itself, sufficient institutional characteristic over the next five years. The increased "marketisation" of higher education will also become more influential, with the probable lifting of the fee cap following the Review planned for 2009 having the potential to significantly change the market economy in which we operate. We face these challenges from a position of relative strength, but we also recognise that the spread of our influence needs to be further extended. Although we have a strong reputation with employers in certain sectors (education, health, local government, the voluntary sector), we are less well-established in parts of the private sector and, given the emphasis placed on the Skills Agenda, further progress will remain a University priority.

Over 50% of academic staff are active in advanced scholarship of national or international importance. Eight Research Centres have been formally designated by the University in areas including Health, Sports Law, Research Ethics, Teaching and Learning, Children and Young People and Learner Identity, Widening Participation and Local Policy Studies. Research leadership capacity has been expanded through the appointment of 18 Readers and 19 Professors.

That said, our position as lead organisation for the Greater Merseyside and West Lancashire Lifelong Learning Network - and our membership of the organisation for the remainder of Lancashire - will enhance our capacity, in partnership, to strengthen our activity and reputation. We also have a developing international reputation, with our well-established market presence in North America being enhanced by activity in the Indian sub-continent and in China.

Given this, we face the future with confidence. Edge Hill University has developed, adapted and changed rapidly throughout the past decade and a half, and we believe that it can and will continue to do so. We believe that the reasons for this confidence are deeply embedded in the culture and ethos of the University as an institution that values the contribution that all staff can and do make, and that gives individuals the capacity and the opportunity to fulfil their potential within structures and systems that are designed to be flexible and enabling.

Like all universities, we are well aware of the generic challenges facing the sector over the next five years, and we know that we will have challenges specific to Edge Hill as we seek to further establish ourselves as a highly respected peer within the sector. But these challenges will also bring opportunities to a University well-versed and successful in identifying and responding to such opportunities in the recent past.