The University of East London is among three in London that have won major accolades at awards.

It picked up the coveted outstanding international strategy award at the fourth annual Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards.

The awards are designed to celebrate the hard work, creativity and teamwork that exist “behind-the-scenes,” without which no academic institution could achieve success.

International impact was in evidence at UEL which won the international strategy award for its programmes which recruit students from abroad but also give homegrown students a chance to see the world.

At the heart of UEL’s Transformation for Excellence strategy is its Going Global bursary scheme, which gives students the chance to travel, linked to their studies, whether for a few days or a whole semester. Launched in 2010 with 90 bursaries, the university plans to open up the scheme to 500 students a year by 2015. The programme has seen students organise events about the Arab Spring, as well as introduced a programme of foreign language, interpreting and intercultural proficiency training for students.

The institution has also worked on reaching out to new partner organisations abroad, particularly in emerging economies such as India. One such alliance with a major Indian company will allow UEL to build the International India Centre at the university’s Docklands campus.

Professor Patrick McGhee, Vice Chancellor of UEL said: “The great thing about our Global Reach Strategy is its inclusivity. Our aim is to provide a truly international study experience to students on all UEL programmes whether they are studying in East London or, on our newly launched Cyprus campus. We are equally proud of the experience provided for those studying UEL programmes across our tremendous partner institution network which includes not only the countries but other countries where the UEL brand is well known such as Malaysia, Greece, Singapore and Vietnam.”