New Shropshire Business School aims to transform industry engagement

The university is creating two new entities – The Harper Adams Business School and Harper Food Innovation.

The Business School will be dedicated to teaching and learning across business and land management, overseeing existing programmes and introducing new ones to meet the needs of individuals and industry, with innovative approaches to management, knowledge exchange and land-based decision-making.

Harper Food Innovation will drive forward research, knowledge exchange, university-business engagement and sustainable food product innovation, alongside delivering education and upskilling for food industry professionals.

Professor Ken Sloan, Harper Adams Vice-Chancellor, said: “A key strength of Harper Adams University is our relationship with industry and the ability to provide high calibre graduates for their employment needs and applied research.

"The creation of these two new entities will not only further clarify and promote the education provision of our students, but also the provision of applied research.”

The Harper Adams Business School will be led by Rebecca Payne, previously Head of the University’s Food Land and Agribusiness Management Department, which will be replaced by the two new entities.

She said: "The university's reputation has been built on its relevance to our specialist industry sectors and businesses within them. We have a significant and distinctive approach to our interactions with and impact on business and we intend to leverage that even further.

"Business schools are uniquely positioned to drive innovation and collaboration across their universities. By integrating Land Management into the Harper Adams Business School, we are showcasing our institution's strengths and distinctive character, and directly addressing the evolving needs of our industry partners.

"Numerous employers have expressed a growing demand for our expertise in supporting organisational and employee development, and we are committed to meeting this challenge head-on."

A new Head of Harper Food Innovation is yet to be appointed but Professor Sloan said its creation will allow the university to "pursue a modern, progressive agenda for food".

The university will disband its existing Food, Land and Agribusiness academic department. Employees have been reassigned to either the business school or Harper Food Innovation.

The university said that while courses will now be linked to one of the two, students will see no changes to the delivery of teaching and learning and, for some routes, course content will continue to reach across departments. Students can expect to see benefits from the change as professional links and engagement opportunities are developed.