The awards, known as the THELMAs, celebrate the higher education sector’s leadership, management, financial and business skills, and showcase the extraordinary innovation, teamwork and commercial acumen of higher education institutions.

Loughborough’s nomination in the Outstanding Digital Innovation in Management and Administration category is for the development of a cross-university digital platform that helps staff in the University’s academic Schools to manage the process of assessing students’ work – from setting the assessments to providing the students with feedback. The new platform – the development of which involved an inter-disciplinary team led by the Centre for Engineering and Design Education – has provided a more efficient, cohesive process and brought greater consistency across the University.

The shortlisting in the Outstanding Marketing/Communications Team category recognises Loughborough’s campaign around the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) – an independent assessment of the quality of universities’ research. Working in partnership with the University’s senior team and its academic and support staff, the Marketing and Advancement team developed a low-cost campaign that utilised PR, social media, online promotion, video and animation, and targeted external and internal communication to raise Loughborough’s research profile with a range of audiences.

Richard Taylor, Chief Operating Officer at Loughborough University, said: “We’re delighted to have been shortlisted for these awards, which recognise the breadth of outstanding activity that takes place on campus.”

The THELMAs ceremony will take place on Thursday 23 June at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London, with more than 1,000 guests expected to be in attendance, including politicians and senior sector figures, as well as academic and university staff from around the UK.