Bath Spa students and graduates to benefit from renewed Santander Universities partnership

The partnership, now in its sixth year, will provide scholarship and award opportunities to support education, entrepreneurship and employability activities. Bath Spa University Vice-Chancellor Professor Sue Rigby and Matt Hutnell, Director Santander Universities UK, held an online ceremony on 22 September to mark the renewal of the agreement.

As a result of this ongoing partnership, the University will continue to help more students to enrich their learning experiences and further enable graduates to achieve their aspirations.

Funding will go towards helping those supported by the University’s Widening Participation team, to enable them to participate in mobility and research programmes, and take part in life-changing experiences such as overseas opportunities.

Students from all subjects, years and backgrounds will have the chance to benefit from the partnership’s initiatives too, such as the Santander Universities creative CV competition, which awards winners with funding and professional skills development experiences.

Both students and graduates will also have the opportunity to apply for seed funding to help with their entrepreneurial ventures. Earlier this year, thanks to Santander Universities support, Bath Spa University created Emerge – its new creative studio, based at its Sion Hill campus.

Emerge has given graduates from across four key areas of the creative industries: art, design, performance, and media the opportunity to become studio residents. These residencies have provided them with space, support and funding to enable them to develop a successful creative practice during what has been a challenging year.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Sue Rigby said:

“I have been delighted to see the positive impact of the opportunities provided to our students and graduates by Santander Universities. Strengthening our partnership for a further three years will mean that even more of our learners will benefit, leaving them with experiences and skills to last a lifetime.”

In the last year, Santander Universities’ Entrepreneurship Programme, has enabled four Bath Spa University graduates to take their film production company, Onnos Media, to new heights. Through this initiative, the team picked up valuable business advice, and were able to secure financial backing to travel to India as part of their work. You can find out more by watching this video on the Bath Spa University YouTube channel.

Matt Hutnell, Director Santander Universities UK, added:

“Santander is committed to supporting higher education as well as local communities across the UK. We are proud to continue our partnership with the Bath Spa University for a further three years and look forward to working together in providing even more opportunities which will benefit both students and the local community over the coming years.”