Smooth North West and Heart Yorkshire owner to be first Radio Partner of the Educate North awards

In 2017, Liverpool John Moores University was named university of the year, Salford City College walked away with the FE award and St.John Rigby was handed the prestigious schools award, while there were wins for University of York, Leeds Trinity and Leeds Beckett Universities as well as Newcastle University and Chester University.

“We are delighted to be part of this special night and to support this tremendously important sector. Many of our 3.4m listeners are connected to further and higher education as students, parents or employees. There are an incredible 540,000 under-grads and post grads in our regions universities,” said Mark Lee, CEO of Communicorp UK. “They deserve our recognition and support and we’re looking forward to a fantastic event.”

“We are delighted that these popular and successful stations are throwing their weight behind these awards which encourage improvement and excellence while searching for the threats and risks which face education in the North,” said Rob McLoughlin OBE, broadcaster and awards founder.

“We are looking forward to working closely with the teams at Heart in Yorkshire and Smooth across the North East and North West.”