For nearly 30 years the Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Higher and Further Education, previously known as the Queen’s Anniversary Prizes, have been the closest thing the sector has to a pinnacle of national recognition.
Applications for this year’s round of prizes have just opened. Organisers hope FE colleges will no longer be under-represented among its illustrious winners.
Nichola Tasker (pictured), the new chief executive of the Royal Anniversary Trust, the organisation behind the Queen Elizabeth Prizes, said: “Universities and colleges are the powerhouses of this country yet the work they do is not recognised widely enough. These prizes provide a platform to shine a light on their invaluable contributions.”
For the uninitiated, prizes are awarded to around 20 FE and HE institutions every two years. No rule that says a certain number must go to colleges. All applicants are judged blind and on their own merits.
Tasker’s job is to protect the prize’s prestige, fiercely resisting any temptation to make changes that could diminish their status.
She joined the trust last November after a decade at English Heritage, most recently running sites including Stonehenge. While new to education, Tasker’s previous roles have given her a keen appreciation for England’s skills base in craft industries.
A big part of what holds the prize up as being the “most prestigious honour” is the gruelling selection process.
Honours system
The journey to a Queen Elizabeth Prize win involves rigorous vetting, peer reviews and input from industry stakeholders and even government departments.
Winners are signed off by the prime minister before being recommended to the King. Technically, Tasker explains, the prizes are part of the UK’s formal honours system.
But that isn’t where royal involvement ends.
The trust announces the winners at a reception at St James’s Palace. There is then a gala dinner at London’s Guildhall, which features ceremonial trumpeters, a parade of winners donning academic garb. And the event is traditionally closed by the King’s Piper.
Winners do need to watch their wine intake though (which was supplied at the last dinner by Plumpton College). The next morning they attend an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace to be awarded their gold-leaf certificate and silver medallion, usually by the monarch.
The trust changed the name of the awards recently from the Queen’s Anniversary Prize to the Queen Elizabeth Prize to honour the late Queen, who founded them.
The pomp, gowns and grand ceremonies are all “essential” not just to underscore the prestige of the prizes, but to level the playing field between universities, more used to such finery, and colleges.
The prize is a rare occasion where colleges and universities are recognised on an equal footing. Tasker said: “The institutions may differ but the impact they make is no less significant.
“You could look at it and say, this is really elitist. We make no bones about wanting to give two days of making our winners feel really special and really proud. We want you to have a brilliant time and take that feeling of pride back to your communities,” she said.
Colleges under-represented
Tasker laughs as she recounts a debate among trustees over the decision to continue awarding silver prizes as precious metal prices rise. “Silver is an investment… it’s something winners proudly display for decades.”
Another benefit of the prize over other sector awards is the enduring benefits reported by winners, from securing funding boosts to influencing policy.
Weston College, which won the prize for its special education needs (SEND) provision in 2017, told the trust it “gave them a seat at the table” to reach policymakers and share their approach on the national stage.
While the prize covers both higher and further education, there has been an intentional drive for more applications from colleges.
According to Tasker, out of the 149 further and higher education institutions that have won awards, 59 have been colleges. Seven colleges won awards in the 2023 round, which was a record.
“Colleges are so quick to respond to local needs,” she says, recalling visits to colleges with close links to significant local industries, from maritime studies at City College Plymouth to space engineering at Loughborough College.
One barrier, Tasker notes, lies in FE colleges’ hesitation to apply, assuming that the prize may lean towards universities. “But that’s far from true,” Tasker emphasises, noting that a third of applications already come from colleges and her goal is to see that grow. To this end, the trust has embarked on outreach efforts, including webinars, creating a buddy system with past college winners, and even deploying Tasker and her team to colleges that have never applied before.
Other types of further education providers, like independent training providers, can be part of a consortium or partnership bid, but the lead applicant needs to be a college.
Tasker’s top tips
Getting the award is tough and can take multiple attempts, Tasker explains. Applicants have to put forward their best-evidenced case against four criteria: quality and excellence, innovation and distinctiveness, impact and benefit to the college, and impact and benefit to the wider world.
“You get 10 pages to tell us your story, you organise it around those four criteria, and that’s it,” Tasker explained.
Judges are wary of glossy highly-designed documents, and have rejected applications relying too heavily on video content. This avoids, in Tasker’s words, a “publishing arms race” where applicants spend to get noticed.
Applications are then judged by three independent “readers” which creates the longlist. Next, the trust confers with professional bodies, named industry partners and government departments to vouch for the applicant.
What matters is the story applicants tell, and the evidence they have to back it up.
Tasker recommends colleges first carefully consider when to apply. “There’s a sweet spot when a project has developed enough to show impact data but hasn’t yet become common practice.”
Next, colleges have to prove tangible impacts on their institution and wider community.
Colleges should also line up external partners they think could be contacted to verify their claims, Tasker advised.
For those who don’t succeed first time, Tasker encourages persistence. Some past winners have applied multiple times, revising their submissions as their projects grew and accumulated more impact data. Chichester College won for its furniture-making and craft skills provision after multiple attempts, Tasker said.
Applications for the next round of prizes are open now and close on March 28.
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