£4 Million for New Alliance

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has awarded £ 4 million to a unique alliance between St George’s, University of London (SGUL), Kingston University (KU) and Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), from its Strategic Development Fund. The alliance builds upon the outstanding strengths of each organisation as providers of Health, Biomedical Sciences and Business Education.It extends the existing ten-year partnership between SGUL and KU through their joint Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences and the recent WestFocus partnership that includes the three organisations, which is funded by the Higher Education innovation Fund (HEIF).

Through the Consortium, the three institutions will offer new opportunities in biological and biomedical sciences, leadership and management education for health professionals and inter-professional practice and learning.The consortium will create a shared, highly advanced, electronic learning environment and communications network for students and staff across the three partners. These initiatives will support the growing need for a diverse and flexible workforce within the NHS and the public sector.

Professor Michael Farthing, Principal of SGUL, commented: ‘This is great news and marks the birth of a new type of collaboration amongst HEIs.The funding provided by HEFCE will allow the rapid development of a range of initiatives, and demonstrates the Government’s confidence in this new way of collaborative working.St George’s is particularly pleased to receive funding towards a new flagship education building’

Professor Peter Scott, Vice-Chancellor of Kingston University noted ‘Kingston and St George’s have the unique experience in British higher education of running a truly joint, and fully integrated, Faculty — of Health and Social Care Sciences — which is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary. The new three-way alliance will allow us to build on this experience — and bring in other key strengths that Kingston has both in subject areas such as engineering, but also activities, such as widening participation.’

Professor Stephen Hill, Principal of RHUL, emphasised:‘We are very excited by this development, and the unusual variety of opportunities it will provide for collaboration among three very different institutions, each with its own special strengths.The three of us working together will lead important and emerging new directions in education and research, and the development of a common learning environment.’