London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine has been shortlisted for the prestigious Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 'University of the Year' award.

The Awards celebrate the very best the UK has to offer and are regarded as the 'Oscars of UK higher education'.

In his leader on 18 August, THE Editor John Gill praised the School for its response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. 

He wrote: "It was an extraordinary example of research expertise being deployed in real time in the real world [but it] wasn't only about putting people into the field. There was also a need for education to combat the spread of the disease... LSHTM's Ebola response demonstrates how digital learning can be deployed to best effect: integrated into the many things that universities do, and the diverse range of formats and approaches to education."

Professor Peter Piot, Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: "Our School is a centre for research and postgraduate education, with a unique mission to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide. We are very pleased to be included in the shortlist for this prestigious award. It is welcome recognition of our research and teaching, and our active role in meeting urgent challenges in public and global health."

The School is highly ranked in various global university league tables. In 2015, it was ranked third in the world for social sciences and public health in the US News Best Global Universities Ranking, and by the 2016 CWTS Leiden Ranking as Europe's top university and fifth in the world for research impact (based on the share of institutions' outputs within the top 1% of papers by citation in all areas of science, independent of size of output). The School does not appear in most UK rankings, as it does not have undergraduate teaching.  

'University of the Year' is the most esteemed THE Award and will be given to an institution that demonstrated exceptional performance during the 2014-15 academic year. The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony on 24 November 2016.

Related links:

• Times Higher Education 23 October 2014 - Peter Piot: there is a 'moral responsibility' to go out and stop Ebola
• Times Higher Education 11 December 2014 - Researcher volunteers for moral duty on Ebola's front line