QMUL celebrates renewed partnership with Santander

L-R: Matt Hutnell (Director for Santander Universities UK) and Professor Colin Bailey (President and Principal at QMUL)

The collaboration, set up in 2011, will continue to support students in enterprise mentoring, training and short-term outbound mobility, as well as continuing the enterprise awards and providing support for language students in their year abroad.

The renewed partnership was signed on the 25 September, at QMUL’s Graduate Centre.

Professor Colin Bailey, President and Principal at QMUL, said: “I am delighted to be renewing this agreement with the Santander Universities network. Our relationship is based on shared objectives of student support, enhancement of the student experience and the opening up of international connections and opportunities. We look forward to working with Santander Universities over the coming years to take forward these objectives.”

Matt Hutnell, Director for Santander Universities UK, added: “Santander is committed to supporting higher education as well as local communities across the UK. It was a pleasure to be able to meet some of the recipients today and understand how this has helped them to prosper. I am delighted to partner with such a prestigious institution and very much look forward to this relationship developing in the coming years.”

Beneficiaries

Tanzina Khatun was a beneficiary of a Santander grant which allowed her to visit AfroReggae, a Brazilian cultural group from Rio de Janeiro that harnesses the ingenuity and creativity of Rio’s favela (shantytown) communities to provide positive social alternatives through arts and culture.

She said: “Santander helped by supporting the funding for me to go Rio and work with AfroReggae. It took off the financial burden of funding myself to go on the trip which I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.”

Theodora Malder was a beneficiary of the Santander grant for her year abroad while studying German and Hispanic Studies. She said: “As part of my course, I had a year abroad. I was able to go to Mexico, funded by the Santander grant. This was very helpful because the costs of the flights were much higher than any other place in Europe. It was a life changing experience. I highly recommend students to make use of the grants available.”

Santander has been working with UK universities since 2007, signing agreements to provide funding for scholarships, mobility grants, special projects and non-academic achievement awards. Since 1997, Santander has signed close to 1,200 agreements in 20 countries.

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