On 16 February 2006 Her Majesty The Queen presented Loughborough University with a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education, which was bestowed on the University in recognition of its outstanding and widely respected work in evaluating and helping develop social policy-related programmes.

It is the fifth time Loughborough has captured one of the prestigious awards, which are awarded biennially in recognition of outstanding educational achievement in areas of service and benefit to the nation.

Concentrated within the Department of Social Sciences the University’s social policy related research is held in high regard.

Among the Department’s current research portfolio are projects looking into new approaches to crime prevention through better home design, babies at risk of significant harm, new systems to help local authorities to control the cost of children in care, changes to the way childcare is conducted and funded in the UK and new ways for the Government to tackle poverty and social exclusion.

Attending the ceremony at Buckingham Palace where University Chancellor Sir John Jennings, Vice Chancellor Professor Shirley Pearce, Professor Peter Golding, Professor of Social Policy Ruth Lister, Sue Middleton (Director of Centre for Research in Social Policy), Professor Harriet Ward (Director for Child and Family Research) and Professor Graham Farrell (Director of the Midlands Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice).

Loughborough has been outstandingly successful in the Queen’s Anniversary Prizes Scheme, gaining five awards – an achievement equalled only by Oxford.