Established in Stoke-on-Trent as North Staffordshire Polytechnic in 1971, the institution was initially a merger of Stoke-on-Trent College of Art, North Staffordshire College of Technology, and Staffordshire College of Technology in Stafford. In 1988 the institution changed its name to Staffordshire polytechnic, and then in 1992 it became Staffordshire University. The University’s main campus is in Stoke-on-Trent with smaller campuses in Stafford, Lichfield, Shrewsbury, Telford and Oswestry. It now has over 23,000 students studying a wide variety of courses, on both full-time and part-time modes, across a number of different sites in the UK and with over 2,000 international students from over 70 countries.

Staffordshire University has a long and proud history of providing high quality, progressive and inclusive higher education for people from across Staffordshire, the region, the UK and the rest of the world. The University provides an extensive range of courses at foundation, certificate, diploma, degree and postgraduate level in the areas of arts and creative technologies; business, education and law; computing, engineering and science; and health sciences. It has a proven track record for achieving excellence in teaching quality, developing innovative courses and for providing opportunities to study in challenging and exciting ways. We are committed to ensuring our courses have a strong employment focus, giving graduates the knowledge and skills needed. Staffordshire is among the leading Universities for secondary teacher training courses and UK national indicators consistently show that the University provides excellent value for money in terms of research output when set against investment.

In addition to our core educational activity, the University is committed to transferring our knowledge to local private, public and voluntary sector partners, through our applied research and innovation activity. We have a strong commitment to our local community and received a commendation from Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) as a result of an independent evaluation for our contributions to local economic development and efforts in strengthening our commercialisation activity (Strengthening the Contribution of English Higher Education Institutions to the Innovation System: knowledge exchange and Higher Education Innovation Funding (HEIF) funding). We have a strong commitment to our local community, with significant investment in the University Quarter – an education led regeneration initiative to transform the area in Stoke around our campus. Staffordshire University has evolved into one of the country’s most dynamic, progressive and forward-thinking learning institutions. Always quick to adapt as student requirements change, we have become renowned for our ground breaking new courses and first-class learning opportunities.

The PERFECT Project fits within the overall strategic aims of the University, with its desire to strengthen and grow our many local, national and international partnerships so that, as a group of like-minded individuals and institutions, participation is widened and even greater opportunities are created for people from all walks of life to experience. It will also ensure, through the engagement with industry, that businesses and employers are driving the University’s commitment to employability, enterprise and entrepreneurialism, influencing the design of a range of innovative enterprise activities, a portfolio of entrepreneurship skills and continuing professional development that meets the needs of all staff and students. This is further supported by the Faculty of Business, Education and Law’s strategic aims, which are to ensure that the approach in the Faculty to teaching and learning is student focused and activity based in style, which is led by business and the professions.

Through our Centre for Applied Business Research (CABR) we are partners on major EU projects concerning innovation policy and renewable energy. Through the Centre for Research on Emerging Economies (CREE), we undertake research and consultancy as well as a vibrant PhD programme focusing on Central and Eastern Europe and, most recently, Middle Eastern countries. CREE has been involved in educational work in Central and Eastern Europe for the past fifteen years through a range of EU funded programmes such as ACE, TEMPUS and Framework Programmes (5 and 6).

The project lead from Staffordshire University will be Stephen Kelly who has significant experience of designing individual purchasing and supply related modules at both Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels, including the implementation of Chartered Institution of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) curricula, for a wide variety of student audiences in different settings. He has also been involved in the design and implementation of overall degrees, as the current award leader for the BA (Hons) Business Management degree. He has a keen interest in the role of education in the purchasing area as shown by his role as the co-organiser of the annual IPSERA Educator’s Conference. He has also been a purchasing practitioner, with over 10 years of purchasing experience in a variety of roles and organisational settings. This experience, coupled with more recent purchasing consultancy activities, give him a unique insight into the link between purchasing practice and education.

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