Winners of the Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Higher and Further Education 2025
The Round 16 winners of the Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Higher and Further Education
2025 have been published in The Gazette. We take a closer look at five of this Round’s
Prize-winning colleges and universities.
What are the Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Education?
The Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Higher and Further Education, formerly Queen's Anniversary Prizes, recognise outstanding work by universities and colleges of higher and further education in the UK. Prizes are awarded for excellence, innovation and well-evidenced benefit for the institution itself and the wider world.
Awarded every two years and recorded in The Gazette, the Prizes recognise not only the team behind the award-winning work, but the institution as a whole.
Who were the Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Education winners for 2025?
A total of 19 Prizes were announced for the 16th Round of the Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Education. See the full list of Prize-winners in a special Gazette supplement and take a closer look at five of this Round’s Prize-winning colleges and universities below.
Hull College
Hull College has established itself as a national leader in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and digital inclusion. Using AI-powered digital storytelling, real-time translation, and trauma-informed teaching, the College has developed a pioneering model that addresses the growing global challenge of refugee displacement and the national need for equitable skills access and social integration.
In response to increasing migration and complex barriers faced by learners with disrupted education, trauma and limited English proficiency, the College created Silent Voices, Vivid Stories. This innovative approach has reshaped how language learning, identity and progression intersect within further education.
Lancaster University
Lancaster University is contributing to a global transformation in digital literacy. As the sole university partner from the outset, Lancaster plays a pivotal role in the development and success of the micro:bit, a pocket-sized, programmable computer.
The micro:bit has empowered an estimated 66 million children worldwide in 85 countries – approximately 2% of all children on the planet – to become coders and technology creators.
SRUC - Scotland's Rural College
SRUC has been informing and shaping agricultural policy in Scotland and beyond for over 80 years, through combining economic analysis with detailed on-farm data collection. Much of this is the result of the groundbreaking Scottish Farm Business Survey (SFBS) which was first initiated in the 1930s and has been running ever since.
Today, more than 500 farms in Scotland take part in the survey, the most comprehensive of its kind in the UK. In return for participation, farmers receive a detailed report, performance benchmarking and a whole-farm carbon audit using SRUC’s innovative carbon calculator, Agrecalc.
Royal College of Music
Founded at the Royal College of Music in 2000, the Centre for Performance Science (CPS) is an internationally distinctive centre for music research, teaching and knowledge exchange. Shaping the future of music education, the Centre uses the latest scientific approaches to examine how performance is learned, taught, executed and evaluated, as well as the impact of music and the arts on society.
As the first centre of its kind in a conservatoire, the CPS is alert to the mission and purpose of conservatoire training and to the demands of the music profession, utilising world-leading applied performance science, as well as interdisciplinary research spanning the arts, medicine, engineering, natural sciences and business.
Loughborough University
World number one in the QS World University Rankings for research in sports-related subjects for nine consecutive years, Loughborough University is pivotal in driving the UK’s success in Para and disability sport. Through a pioneering partnership with ParalympicsGB, it generates world-class research, enhancing the performance of athletes at the Paralympics.
Having steered the creation of a world-class sports ecosystem unique within higher education, Loughborough has transformed its campus into a living laboratory – a space in which to address the most pressing and pertinent challenges, inspire athletes to achieve their best and create inclusive recreational opportunities.
Celebrate your award with a commemorative edition
If you have been awarded with the Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Education, The Gazette is available to buy as a personalised commemorative edition. Each pack contains a complete edition of The Gazette from the day the honour was published.
See also
The Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Higher and Further Education 2025
Birthday and New Year Honours lists (1937 to 2025)
The King's Award for Voluntary Service
The King's Awards for Enterprise
Find out more
The Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Education
Images
Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Education
Hull College
Lancaster University
SRUC - Scotland's Rural College
Royal College of Music
Loughborough University
The Gazette
Publication date
26 November 2025
Any opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and the author alone, and does not necessarily represent that of The Gazette.