An emphasis on research paid off spectacularly for De Montfort in the 2008 official assessments, when the university achieved the best results of any post-1992 university.

Some 43 per cent of the work submitted was rated world-leading or internationally excellent.

Almost all the subject areas contained some world-leading research and in the case of English language and literature the proportion reached an outstanding 40 per cent.

Communication and media studies and drama, dance and performing arts also produced excellent results.

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Research

Accolades in the previous Research Assessment Exercise helped bring in annual research income of about £10 million a year in external research grants and contracts.

The university has 1,500 staff engaged in research and 450 research degree students. Much of the successful work took place in the Institute of Creative Technologies, which acts as a catalyst for research that defies the traditional boundaries of computer science, the digital arts and humanities, and is already exciting the interest of the business world.

Another £3.7-million was spent on creative technology studios, which feature video, audio and radio production suites, recording studios and laboratories with the latest broadcast and audio analysis technology. A Performance Arts Centre for Excellence (PACE) had already opened, allowing the university deliver innovative teaching for students of dance, drama and music technology.

Colleges

Once spread over a network of campuses in a 50-mile radius, De Montfort is concentrating its efforts on its original base in Leicester. The university is putting more than £100 million into consolidating a more manageable estate, some of it provided by the city council and local businesses.

Having departed Milton Keynes, Lincoln and Bedford, there are now only two campuses, both in Leicester itself, following the relocation of health and life sciences to the university’s headquarters. Another 11 colleges are associates, linked into the university’s network and offering its courses.

A formal agreement commits the colleges, which stretch from north Oxfordshire to Liverpool, to work with each other as well as with De Montfort.

Campus developments include the diversion of part of the ring road to allow the university to open up the 15th-century Magazine Gateway building, which will become the focal point of a university quarter with public open spaces and new links to the city centre. A £35-million building for business and law, due to open in September 2009, will be at its heart. The 24-hour library has been remodelled with wireless networks and rooms equipped with audio visual and IT facilities for preparing presentations.

The professional accounting courses were awarded “premier” status in a worldwide accreditation scheme, and the university houses a national teaching centre for drama, dance and theatre studies. Recent results in the National Student Survey have seen a big improvement on the first two rounds, with English, history, music, politics and business producing the highest levels of satisfaction.

Courses

De Montfort’s range of programmes has been expanding and applications were up by more than 14 per cent at the start of 2009. Among the recent additions is a BSc in Green Energy Technology and another in Public and Community health, tackling issues such as increases in sexually transmitted infections and obesity.

The dropout rate has improved considerably: at less than 15 per cent, it is now below the national average for the university’s courses and entry grades. The university has abandoned semesters and gone back to a three-term year, partly because it believed the prospect of imminent assessment encouraged some students to give up at Christmas in their first year.

De Montfort has a proud record for widening access to higher education with almost 43 per cent of students coming from working-class homes. It was one of the first to set up an employment agency to help students find part-time work during their course of study as well as find careers upon graduation.

Strong links with local business and industry manifest themselves in courses such as the BSc in media production, run in conjunction with the BBC, and in the provision of facilities such as the telematics laboratory sponsored by Orange, the mobile telephone company.

Accommodation difficulties have been addressed, with the addition of new halls within walking distance of lectures. All first years, apart from locals, are now guaranteed a place in halls and rents in the private sector are among the lowest in England.

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