In my first newsletter of the new academic year: the Paris 2024 Games, our new Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience, the 2024 Vice-Chancellor’s Awards, our Ambassador for Sport, Health and Wellbeing, the inaugural GSUN summit, and Loughborough’s hat trick of nominations in the 2024 THE Awards.

Looking back at the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympic Games

The 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris this summer were phenomenal events, showcasing the world’s greatest sportsmen and women, and I was incredibly proud of the achievements of our Loughborough-linked athletes.  

They brought home a total of 35 medals across both games – seven gold, six silver and six bronze at the Paralympics and four gold, four silver and eight bronze at the Olympics. So strong were the Loughborough athletes’ performances that we would have finished as a top 20 nation in the Paralympic Games if we were reclassified as a country and 16th in the OIympics. 

Among the highlights from this year’s Games were Olympic gold for Daniel Wiffen in the men’s 800m freestyle and bronze in the 1,500m freestyle, and gold for cyclist Sophie Capewell in the women’s team sprint – both Daniel and Sophie are current Loughborough students. At the Paralympics, swimmer Tully Kearney won gold in the women’s 100m and 200m freestyle S5, and for Jenny Holl, who’s the cycling pilot for Sophie Unwin, won two golds, a silver and a bronze; Tully trains at Loughborough and Jenny is part of Loughborough Lightning Cycling.  

A full list of our medal-winning athletes is available on our news pages. 

Alongside our athletes we must also celebrate the coaches, practitioners and support staff across the University who help our students, alumni and Loughborough-based athletes to achieve their goals, as well as those who ensure our sports facilities remain in peak condition for our athletes. Their dedication, day in day out, is truly outstanding. 

We must also acknowledge the world-leading sports-related research that takes place across the University, which underpins not only our own athletes’ performance but that of sportsmen and women around the world.  

For instance, our researchers in the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport were asked to look at how wheelchairs would interact with the clay courts being used at the Paris Games, and in this video, gold medal-winning triathlete Cassandre Beaugrand explains why our heat lab, which helped her acclimatise to the Paris temperatures, is her “worst, favourite place”. 

The totality of our outstanding Olympic and Paralympics performance underpinned being named Sports University of the Year in the Times and Sunday Times and the Daily Mail university guides for 2025, which were both published this month.  

It also generated some excellent news coverage for the University, with more than 650 media mentions in 200-plus outlets, including BBC News, The Times, The Guardian and BBC Radio 4. Our Olympics and Paralympics videos on social media also had more than half a million views. 

Our performance at the Olympics and Paralympics has enabled us to enhance Loughborough’s global profile and reputation, which is a key part of our strategic vision, and shown how we can leverage our leading position in sport performance, research and education to meet our strategic Sporting Excellence and Opportunity aim. 

New Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience appointed

This autumn we will welcome Professor Sam Grogan as our new Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience. 

Professor Grogan is currently Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience at the University of Salford, and prior to that was Dean of Students, with responsibility for leadership of the academic student experience. Before joining the University of Salford, he was Director of Higher Education at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and Head of the Department of Performing Arts at Bath Spa University. 

He is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Board Member of Advance HE, which promotes excellence in higher education, and was also Round Table Chair for the launch of the Social Mobility Pledge, a coalition of more than 800 organisations that have committed to boost opportunity and social mobility. 

Professor Grogan will bring invaluable experience in shaping and leading the delivery of first-class education opportunities for our students and ensuring they have the chance to develop the skills they need for whatever they do in their future lives – one of the key aspirations in our strategic plan. 

I’m sure you’ll join me in giving a very warm welcome to Professor Grogan.

Vice-Chancellor’s Awards mark the contributions and achievements of staff

Each year, the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards allow us to recognise and celebrate the contributions of staff from around the University who have shown their commitment to the University’s aims and values, especially around the theme of ‘togetherness’, in keeping with the title of our strategy.   

This year almost 250 nominations – a record number with every School and Professional Service represented – were submitted for eighteen awards across the six categories of research and innovation; education and student experience; equity, diversity and inclusion; international engagement and impact; sporting excellence and opportunity; and living the values.    

Congratulations to all those nominated and the incredibly worthy winners. Full details are available on the Vice-Chancellor’s Awards website. 

More than 170 staff and guests attended the awards ceremony, which was compered by the wonderful Pauline Matturi from Organisational Development. Our student jazz band, Tuxedo Swing, were our musical entertainment for the afternoon. 

As well as presenting awards on the night, we also recognise the winners and nominees in a dedicated space on campus near the West Park Teaching Hub, where we have a plaque, mounted on locally-sourced Mountsorrel granite, and seating area, surrounded by trees and shrubs. This new green space will provide a lasting legacy both to the achievements of our staff and to our sustainability ambitions.

Ambassador appointed for the Sport, Health and Wellbeing strategic theme

I’m delighted that Karen Carney OBE has been appointed as the Ambassador for our Sport, Health and Wellbeing strategic theme.  

Karen joins Steve Varley and Politics graduates Ghanim and Ahmad Muhammad Al-Muftah who are our Ambassadors for the Net Zero and Climate Change and Vibrant and Inclusive Communities themes. Together they will help to enhance the University’s reputation and profile by acting as advocates for the University’s activities and achievements through their networks.  

Loughborough alumna Karen has had an impressive professional football career. She played for Birmingham City, Arsenal, Chelsea and the Chicago Red Stars, and played in four UEFA Women’s Championships between 2005 and 2017. She also represented England at four Women’s World Cups, gaining 144 caps to make her one of the country’s most capped players of all time, and was part of Team GB at the 2012 Olympics.   

Since retiring from football, Karen has gone on to work as a broadcaster on all major networks covering both men’s and women’s football.  

Karen will work closely alongside Professor Diwei Zhou and Professor David Fletcher,  the Associate Pro Vice-Chancellors for the Strategic Theme, as well as Professor Jo Maher, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Sport to highlight our world-leading research and innovation in sport and exercise, as well as the fantastic facilities and opportunities within sport that the University provides.

Inaugural global sport summit focuses on inclusivity

World leaders in sport research were at the University of Oregon this month for the inaugural summit of the Global Sport University Network (GSUN), which was co-founded by Loughborough and Oregon.  

The event brought together experts from six continents and 21 countries to discuss collaboration on the theme of inclusivity in sport performance, including para athletics, aging, female athletes and mental health. 

GSUN aims to address problems that are too big for one institution to solve alone. The network connects industry, governing bodies, sport commissions, media and other key stakeholders with researchers, educators and higher education institutions in four key thematic areas: health and performance, inclusivity and societal impact, innovation, and sustainability.  

Panel topics at the summit included the use of artificial intelligence to make sport more inclusive, the growth of para sports and youth physical fitness. 

GSUN is a perfect example of our strategic aim to use our world-leading position in sport, health and wellbeing research, and work in partnership with other globally-renowned universities, to change the world through sport.

Loughborough shortlisted for three Times Higher Education awards

The shortlist for this year’s higher education ‘Oscars’ – the Times Higher Education Awards – was announced this month and I was delighted to see Loughborough in three categories. 

Professor Vicky Goosey-Tolfrey, who is the Director of the Peter Harrison Centre for Disability Sport, is a finalist for Outstanding Supervisor of the Year. Vicky has supervised almost 30 PhD students, who have secured leadership roles in Para sport since graduating. Her unique supervision method – known as the embedded scientist approach – provides students with access to Para athletes, facilities and resources to support their research. 

Sally Carter, from the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, has been shortlisted in the Outstanding Technician of the Year category. Sally applies her expertise and skills across the School and supports other technical teams. Her creative problem-solving approach for laboratory users led to the creation of the Research Buddy Scheme, piloted in the 23/24 academic year, which saved 260 hours of lost data collection and improved students’ employability.  

Finally, Loughborough’s Future Talent Programme has been nominated for the Widening Participation or Outreach Initiative of the Year. The Future Talent Programme aims to supercharge black students’ career prospects and confidence by enabling them to engage with employers who want to recruit diverse talent to their workforce. The programme, which was created in 2020 to help address the placement progression gaps between black and white students at the University, has supported almost 700 students to date. 

Congratulations to all the Loughborough nominees. I hope we’ll be celebrating at the awards ceremony on 28th November!