Pictured above: The University of Northampton celebrate their award win with awards presenter Alexander Armstrong (left)

The University of Northampton was victorious in the annual Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards on Thursday 17th June at Grosvenor House Hotel, London, after being presented with the Outstanding Estates Team Award for 2010.

In front of an audience of over 1000 colleagues from higher education institutions and organisations, the University won the award out of a shortlist of six universities which also included the University of Essex, Nottingham Trent University, The Open University, Roehampton University and University of Surrey.

Gill Winder, Director of Estates Services, The University of Northampton, commented: "We are delighted to have won this prestigious award. My personal thanks go to the team who have worked extremely hard to achieve this accolade on a diverse and challenging range of projects. These projects could not have been achieved without the external funding partners who helped to make them a reality through their positive encouragement and financial support."

Ann Tate, Vice Chancellor, The University of Northampton, added: "I am very proud of our Estates team who are often the unsung heroes and heroines of our work at the University. This award demonstrates that it takes all kinds of professional endeavours to deliver high quality learning, teaching and research to our local, national and international communities. I am confident that this award will spur them on to even greater achievements in the years to come."

The judges comments noted: "The University of Northampton's team have made an outstanding contribution to their estate, both on and off campus, in the past year. This has been achieved most notably through the development of a 20 year 'campus masterplan', but the team have also been involved in a number of specific projects…"

Patrick Finch, Director of Estates at the University of Bristol and a member of the judging panel for the awards, concluded:

"The University of Northampton is a worthy winner. Innovative design and procurement is complemented by the value of strong regional engagement and productive partnership with national centres of excellence."