Powering Impact report

As the only university located in Hertfordshire, we occupy a unique role in the regional ecosystem. With a student body of more than 30,000, and as one of the county’s largest employers of 3,360 staff (1,940 of whom are employed full-time), spending by our community and those in our supply chain significantly impacts Hertfordshire’s economy.

In 2020-21, we were responsible for 6,280 full-time jobs – and each of these direct jobs at the University supported a further 1.5 jobs in Hertfordshire, with a further 530 full-time jobs supported by our £31m of local supplier expenditure and its multiplier effects. Nationally, our student and staff expenditure supports 7,180 full-time jobs and provides £450m gross value add to the UK economy. The University spends £120m with UK suppliers and delivers £12.3m worth of research and consultancy services annually.

15% of our students originally come from Hertfordshire and 13% find employment in the county after graduation, demonstrating our role in retaining young people to study and live in Hertfordshire. We have also built a thriving international community, with the 12th largest international student population in the UK. Our international students diversify and enrich our community, boost our export earnings to invest back into university teaching and services, strengthen international relations, help plug crucial UK skill gaps in STEM and healthcare, and contribute to levelling up in the UK and across the globe.

We provide entrepreneurs, start-ups and scale-up businesses with the right expertise, facilities and entrepreneurial networks to achieve growth. Since 2019 we have supported 632 businesses, offering 3596 hours of advice on innovation, research and development; 992 hours of skills and training advice; and 740 hours of mentoring and consultancy. Those businesses were able to generate £ 30m additional revenue and create 830 full-time jobs.

As a designated University Enterprise Zone, our multifaceted enterprise support offer – including coworking spaces, one-to-one mentoring and a Business Incubator supporting 140 start-ups – is designed to be responsive to business and priority sector needs. Our services support aspiring entrepreneurs, start-ups and scale-up businesses to innovate and achieve sustainable growth.

We believe that every entrepreneur has the potential to make a lasting and positive contribution to improve society; that's why we're so focused on cultivating ‘generation start-up’ – the next generation of entrepreneurial talent. In five years we have almost tripled the number of graduate start-ups we've supported, growing by 274% between 2016-21: the highest growth rate in the East of England.

Our researchers undertake globally impactful, commercially viable research projects that are socially, economically and industrially meaningful and remain vital to our core purpose. Our reputation for top-level research in turn attracts a community of expert researchers and project leaders, whose calibre also boosts the quality of both our teaching and bespoke business support

The 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) confirmed the high quality of our research, showinga significant rise in overall rankings since the last REF in 2014. We were ranked in the top 25% for all UK universities for research impact — with the highest ranking of any post-92 university – and rose in the research excellence rankings from 83rd to 62nd. 90% of our research had ‘outstanding’ or ‘very considerable’ impact, with exceptional results in areas including psychology, health and care, and agricultural sciences. More than double our research ranked as "world-leading" (4*) since the last REF (2014).

From developing biological surveillance for the British Military, to creating resources for care homes and briefing the Cabinet Office during the height of the COVID-19 crisis, our research informs how policymakers and sector leaders respond to the key socioeconomic challenges of our time. After £10m of income from research grants and contracts in 2020-21, we generated £70m of economic benefit from our research productivity.

In the UK currently, talent development at higher technical levels falls short of employers’ needs across key sectors, with only 4% of young people achieving a qualification at a higher technical level by the age of 25. The current supply is not enough to meet vital socioeconomic challenges, such as digitisation, the transition to a green economy, or meeting the needs of an ageing population. Our work-based learning, upskilling programmes and vocationally relevant curriculum are informed by targeted engagement with professional bodies, key employers and government – to ensure we are directly responding to real-world needs.

This career-focused education results in 8,000 graduates who enter the job market each year, 93% of whom are in employment of further education 15 months later. Our graduates boost key sectors: 39% enter healthcare professions.

Our Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training, which delivered 19,500 learner days to businesses and individuals in 2020-21, supports the national need to upskill, reskill and re-educate the UK workforce at all stages of life. 72% of our CPD of focused on health and medicine to address labour shortages in frontline occupations. Meanwhile, our thriving programme of bespoke apprenticeship courses – with 805 active apprenticeships running from September 2022 – caters to the needs of high priority sectors such as health and social care, digital technologies, engineering, and leadership and management.

We are, and always have been, committed to ensuring that everyone is able to access and achieve through higher education. As the leading university for social mobility in the East of England, and one of the top 20 universities nationally, we celebrate diversity and believe that the inclusion of different voices and unique perspectives enhances our education, enriches our teaching and research and is absolutely vital for socioeconomic development. 68% of our students come from widening access and participation backgrounds, including students who are the first in their family to attend university (36%), from households with an income of under 25k (26%), and students who are Black, Asian and ethnic minority (66%).

Our vision is to ensure all our communities have access to the facilities, knowledge, partnerships and opportunities required to achieve their goals. We want our graduates and researchers to push boundaries and break barriers; to go on and solve the most pressing challenges of our time and to share their big ideas with the world. We want to empower our people to have a radical impact on our communities here, across the UK and throughout the world. We want them to be proud to have been part of the University of Hertfordshire; a place where ideas move at a different pace.