£100,000 of extra support for University of Sunderland students

The University of Sunderland and Santander have signed an agreement to double the support the global bank offers to students to help them fulfil their potential.

Their long-running partnership, which has already seen Santander support hundreds of Sunderland students, will offer £100,000 of financial support each year until 2026-2027.

The new support package includes:

· Ten £1,000 Brighter Futures Awards, which will help Sunderland students focus on their studies with less financial pressure;

· Six £5,000 Education Awards, which can be used to cover essential educational costs such as tuition fees, course materials and accommodation or anything else that will help create an environment where students can better focus on their studies;

· One hundred and twenty £250 Employability Awards, which will support students juggling unexpected costs when launching their careers, whether that is travelling to an interview, or covering the essentials for a placement or internship; and

· Six £5,000 Entrepreneurship Awards, which are open to Sunderland students, staff and graduates to support entrepreneurs run their fledgling business.

All Sunderland staff, students and graduates are also able to access Santander Open Academy: a free global e-learning platform which offers online courses, grants, and expert-led content aimed at helping people acquire and update skills and competencies that are most in demand in the labour market.

Sir David Bell, the University’s Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, joined Santander UK’s National Partnerships Director, Jonathan Powell, to celebrate this growing partnership.

Sir David said: “Our partnership with Santander Universities has been running for nearly eight years and has brought immense benefit to students and staff alike. These new awards will provide the next generation of Sunderland’s most talented people with the opportunity to achieve even greater success in the future.

“I am enormously grateful to Santander Universities for the continuing trust and faith they have in our university. That speaks to how the values of the two organisations are aligned and our shared commitment to do the very best for all those who study and work at the University of Sunderland.”

Santander is one of the world’s leading corporate supporters of education, employability, and entrepreneurship, helping nearly 8.3 million people and businesses the last three decades, and has invested more than 2.5 billion euros through collaboration agreements with more than 1,000 universities and institutions from 13 countries, with £115 million invested in partnerships with universities in the UK since 2007.

Jonathan Powell added: “At Santander we believe strongly in the power of collaboration, and that has been strongly evident in our partnership with Sunderland. It’s great to recognise this and the exceptional impact we’ve achieved together by increasing our support for the university in the renewal of our partnership.

“This new agreement provides more opportunities for people to prosper through our support of education, employability and entrepreneurship. In addition to scholarships, grants and awards we are also able to offer free accessible learning opportunities to the whole university community through our digital platform Santander Open Academy.”

Sunderland students and graduates gathered recently to celebrate £60,000 worth of Santander Education and Entrepreneurship awards, presented to 12 worthy recipients.

Among those receiving awards was Kirsty Knott, who graduated from the University with a degree in Business and Financial Management in 2010. With the support of a £5,000 Entrepreneurship Award, Kirsty is sharing her skills and experience in business via her podcast, Expansions Coaching.

“It’s a bi-weekly podcast where my husband Anth and I talk about how to navigate difficult situations and the impact remaining positive can have,” Kirsty, 37, from Ryton, said.

“Expansions Coaching takes a different subject each time; for example, it could be how to be more confident and bring in elements of positive psychology and neuroscience to explain what’s really going on.

“We also bring in our own experiences of navigating things such as Anth’s cancer diagnosis - and how we remained positive after he lost us £72,000 on Michael Mcytyre’s The Wheel back in December.”

Expansion Coaching are also launching face to face networking events, starting on 14 May with the Crack on Club, a club for small business to meet up and network, at Twenty Twenty Bar in Newcastle. Find out more and book HERE.

Kieran Harley, 25, is in the first year of his Electronic and Electrical Engineering degree and has won one of six £5,000 Santander Education Awards. As a carer for his mother, as well as studying and working part-time, he says the award will make a major contribution to his success as a new student.

“I wanted to be able to focus more fully on my degree, particularly the practical side of engineering,” Keiran, from Sunderland, said.

“My long-term goal is to work in the renewable energy sector, and winning the award will make a significant difference to my studies.

“The financial pressure that comes with balancing university, part-time work, and caring responsibilities at home can be very difficult. The Santander Education Award will allow me to reduce my working hours, giving me more time and flexibility to focus both on my degree, and to better support my mum.”

The University of Sunderland offers a number of scholarships and bursaries to support both current students, applicants and graduates. Find out more here.

Santander and its support for education, employability, and entrepreneurship

For 30 years, Santander has a firm commitment to education, employability and entrepreneurship, which distinguishes it from the rest of the world's financial entities. The bank has allocated more than 2.5 billion euros and has supported more than 8.3 million people and businesses through agreements with more than 1,000 universities. It has been recognized as one of the companies that are contributing the most to changing the world for the better, according to Fortune magazine's 'Change the World' 2025 list (www.santander.com/universities).

Santander Open Academy is a professional learning and development global platform available to everyone with no requirement to be a Santander customer. The platform offers access to training to improve professional skills and improve employability with 100% subsidized courses, free quality content and scholarships with leading universities and institutions around the world, which are updated according to the skills that are most in demand by the market.