University of Gloucestershire recognised for role in supporting regional businesses

By Peter Davison

29 September 2023

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International Business Management students at a business event at the Growth Hub

The University of Gloucestershire’s role in supporting regional business growth and regeneration has been recognised in the latest release of the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF).

The Framework, which is published by Research England, reflects how well UK universities build community engagement and promote growth in their local areas.

For the purposes of the KEF, institutions are arranged into clusters. As a mid-sized university with more of a teaching focus, University of Gloucestershire is in cluster J, which also includes Bath Spa, the University of East London and the University of Chester.

The University came first in its Cluster Group and achieved the top rating of ‘very high engagement’ for:

Providing consultancy and facilities for Small and Medium Enterprises through its Growth Hub
The research income it generates in partnership with the public and third (voluntary) sector.
The University also achieved the top rating of ‘very high engagement’ for:

Provision of quality training and CPD for regional businesses

The increasing income the University generates from delivering Continuing Professional Development (CPD) has been largely driven by its growth in apprenticeships, rising from 40 in 2016 to more than 900 apprentices this year. The University is the largest provider of higher and degree apprenticeships in Gloucestershire and one of the largest providers in the South West.

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It was also rated strongly, with a score of ‘high engagement’, for:

Support for students and graduates to start up and grow their own businesses
Securing income linked to regional regeneration and development

Dr Polly Pick, Director of Business Engagement and Partnership at the University, said: “We are proud of our track record of working with business and employers.

“Our Gloucestershire Business School brings together a range of partners to create a fully integrated setting for business-related Knowledge Exchange.

“As part of the Gloucestershire Growth Hub Network, our Growth Hub has supported more than 16,000 businesses and turnover growth of more than £400million across Gloucestershire since 2014.”

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.