A novel finishing system for the garment industry which has been translated into commercial success won Leeds Metropolitan University a Queen's Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education. Invented by Richard Brown of Castleford Bag System, its industrial marketing was helped by Kate Edwards, a graduate in business and marketing through a Company Associate Partnership Scheme. The awards scheme commended the initiative as "a pioneering and highly productive relationship between academe and industry. It is a trail-blazer".
The London Institute is among 22 other institutions to have won a prize. It is the only art establishment to have won the accolade. Its prize is in recognition of the pioneering work on the conservation of words and images on paper that has been undertaken at the Camberwell college during the past 25 years.
Sir William Stubbs, rector of the institute, said that the award "constituted a recognition of the national and international significance of the work being undertaken at Camberwell".
Other winners are:
Birmingham University: work in archaeology, technology and the community; King's College London: teaching, research and public debate of medical law and ethics; University of York: teaching research and technology transfer in computer science; Strathclyde University: teaching and research in electrical power engineering: Carlisle College: educational access throughout life; Edinburgh University: music in the community - a course for advanced music students; Exeter University: diabetes and vascular health education and research-microvascular processes and associated work; Greenhead Sixth Form College: performance monitoring to realise student potential; Hackney Community College: bringing young women into the sciences; University of Hull: social work practice - consultancy, teaching and research; Liverpool Hope College: the Ladakh Project - teaching and training in India for Tibetans; University of Manchester: school of biological sciences -multidisciplinary teaching and research; Middlesex University: learning in the workplace: off-campus learning, training and research for commerce, industry and public services; College of North West London: East European links: expertise and skills transfer to Bulgaria and Russia; The Open University: teacher training: opening up careers through part-time distance learning; University of Oxford: molecular medicine: collaborative research and transfer of results; Queen's University of Belfast: environmental research centre: research and training in partnership with industry; School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London: international distance learning-economics and finance across the globe; Sheffield College: Braille skills accreditation - providing a new and recognised qualification; Surrey University: satellite engineering and communications - teaching and research; University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology: technical education, technology transfer and academic and trade relations with Japan.