Harper Adams University: New industrial sponsors added for 2022 placement awards ceremony
A prizegiving ceremony for Harper Adams students has picked up three new industry sponsors.
The ceremony – which will be held on May 12 this year – marks the achievements of students during their industrial placement year, which undergraduates at the University undertake before their final year of study.
Students are shortlisted for prizes at the ceremony based upon their performance at their respective employers over the year, with winners chosen by Course Teams or through a series of sponsor-led interviews.
Senior Lecturer in Retail Marketing and Management and Placement Manager for the Food, Land and Agri-Business Department Alastair Boot said: “We are pleased with the support these awards have received – and recognise it as a further sign of the desire by industry to support the development of our students and of the strength of Harper Adams alumni in the graduate marketplace.”
The most recent Graduate Outcomes survey data, released in July 2021, showed that amongst UK-domiciled full-time undergraduates, nearly 98 per cent of Harper Adams graduates were in work or undertaking further study.
This was the highest figure for any university in the UK – with only three specialist higher education providers having higher figures, two of which offer only postgraduate courses – and well above the sector average for universities.
The number of these graduates who were in full time employment was also the highest for any UK university, at 78 per cent, and the proportion of them in paid employment classified as ‘highly-skilled’ was 71.8 – above the sector average for universities of 70.2%.
Alastair added: “Cultura Connect, who have very generously offered three prizes totalling £600 for the Agri-Business and Food Placement Award, are based in Whitchurch, and support the agribusiness and food sectors with recruitment, connecting the best agricultural & food businesses with the best possible candidates.
“We are very grateful to Cultura Connect and look forward to working with them in the longer term.”
Two further sponsors have also been secured by Lecturer and Agriculture Placement Manager Terry Pickthall, with Cogent – one of the UK’s leading suppliers of bovine genetics – sponsoring the FdSc Agriculture prize and multi-disciplinary property partnership Carter Jonas lending their support to a Rural Enterprise and Land Management prize.
Terry said: “It was great to see our call for new sponsors being picked up so promptly by our industry partners, and as Alastair has said, their support also pays testament to the esteem in which our graduates are held.
“These prizes really do mean a lot to our recipients and we’d like to thank all our sponsors for their support.”