Lincoln Civic Award winner 2019: Professor Mary Stuart CBE

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University of Lincoln Vice-Chancellor Professor Mary Stuart CBE – who has driven the University’s “stellar growth” over the past decade – is the winner of this year’s Lincoln Civic Award.

Professor Stuart will be receiving this much-coveted accolade from the Mayor of Lincoln, Keith Weaver, at a special ceremony in the city’s Guildhall on Thursday, April 4.

The announcement comes after the Lincoln Civic Award trustees considered a range of nominations in respect of individuals and organisations working in a variety of sectors and deciding that the nomination for Professor Stuart stood out.

Professor Stuart’s nominator said: “Since joining the University in 2009, Professor Stuart has been passionate about re-inventing its civic mission and has used this as a mechanism to accelerate and diversify its impact for the benefit of the wider community.

“Mary is acutely conscious of our role in contributing, not only to the sustainable economic growth of our community, but also in increasing social mobility and the enhancement of the cultural eco-system.”

The University is now the fifth fastest-growing university in the UK.

Under Mary’s leadership, it established the first dedicated new engineering school in the UK for more than 20 years in collaboration with Siemens and expanded provision of science courses to tackle regional skills shortages.

Mary said: “I am delighted and humbled to receive this award.

“Lincoln is a very special place and our successes as a University are deeply intertwined with those of the city – it has always been a collective effort.

“The University was created thanks to the vision and ambition of local people and I feel extremely lucky to be a custodian of it.

“That original civic mission to create new opportunities for local people and support our local economy and cultural heritage still motivates me and my colleagues today.”