A driving force in the region’s economy

Whether it is helping existing businesses, starting new businesses or helping to provide an innovative environment in which forward-thinking businesses can thrive, the University of Hull is a keen and active partner.

By translating its research, knowledge and expertise into the business community, the University is at the heart of the economic development of the region.

And it is ready to do more.

The University provides a range of services to businesses, enabling them to
benefit through:

• world-class contract research
• consultancy
• continuous professional development and training
• graduate placement, internships and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
• access to state-of-the-art facilities

The University has helped businesses achieve success in areas of activity including logistics, the environment, renewable energies, healthcare technologies, creative and digital, engineering, chemistry, computer science, law and languages.

Its state-of-the-art Enterprise Centre provides the time, space and support for pre-trading and early-trading businesses to hone their ideas and create profitable enterprises. This fabulous facility is not just available to students and graduates – it is also proving popular with those with no prior connection to the University who feel that proximity to the expertise and facilities that the centre offers will help them to achieve commercial success.

The University’s reach and impact go way beyond the confines of its expanded Hull Campus.

It has a pioneering environmental facility at The Deep; plays a leading role in activities at the Hull Royal and Castle Hill hospitals; and is an active partner in the magnificent new Hull History Centre, the Wilberforce Institute in Hull’s old town and the World Trade Centre at the heart of the city’s expanding business quarter.

Further afield, its Scarborough Campus is also closely engaged in economic and community developments along Yorkshire’s coastal strip. These are facilitated chiefly through its Centre for Employability and Professional Skills and its Creative Enterprise Laboratory (based next to the BBC facility in the town’s Woodend Creative Workspace), and is leading the drive to retain the best talent in the digital and creative industries.

The basic figures may surprise some people:

• the University is one of the area’s leading employers, with around 2,500 staff and a turnover in the region of £140 million.
• it typically has approximately 21,000 students from 100 different countries.
• its economic impact on the Hull city region is estimated to be £350 million a year.
• its specific interaction with business, applied to agreed national performance measures, is worth around £20 million a year.

The University brings its expertise to bear on major business opportunities for the region – helping to shape the future economy and working with strategic partners to identify potential for the development of new skills and new businesses.

Its workforce development activity spans the business sectors and helps organisations of all sizes from multinationals to the smallest of local companies. It can provide help, guidance and training in everything from critical systems thinking for creative business leaders to health and safety qualifications; from the latest high-tech simulator training for ports’ crane operators and JCB drivers to training in languages and employment law; from the freshest approaches to effective marketing to compliance with chemical regulations.

It provides environmental audits to small companies seeking to maximise their profits, secure business accreditation to help them tender for lucrative contracts, ensure their sustainability or simply to comply with fast-changing legislation.

And that's before mention of the University’s core offering to businesses of first class degrees, employer-led Foundation Degrees, MBAs, leadership training… the list goes on.

A consistent problem is that the University can never do enough to communicate to the business community just how much it has to offer. When businesses do pay a visit, they are usually overwhelmed by just how much help, support and expertise is available to them.

“I had no idea so much was going on at the University that could help me,” is a common cry. Don’t let it be one from you.

And remember …

Our knowledge is your business.