The University of Bradford and Santander have agreed a three-year partnership with Santander to help its students kickstart their careers.
The new partnership marks the University of Bradford as part of the bank’s UK university network, which aims to remove barriers to higher education for students by providing grants, scholarships and internships to students, and funding to budding entrepreneurs to launch and grow their businesses.
The partnership with Santander includes a £150,000 package of support across the three years providing funding for University of Bradford students across three areas; education, entrepreneurship, and employability.
Professor Shirley Congdon, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bradford, said: “We are delighted to be invited to join Santander’s UK university network. Santander’s university network has an outstanding reputation for helping students from across the UK and beyond to develop skills and overcome any potential barriers they may have which prevent them from achieving their future career aspirations.
“We are excited to establish this partnership and look forward to delivering a range of new opportunities which make a positive difference to our students, staff, businesses and communities across the Bradford district.”
Through the new agreement, one University of Bradford student will receive an annual grant of £10,000 over three years, as part of the Santander Scholars Programme, which aims to support under-represented students in higher education.
On top of that, £15,000 will be allocated to support entrepreneurship and start-ups; a minimum of three budding businesses created by students will receive up to £5,000 each.
The employability strand of the partnership will provide support package includes £15,000 of funding per year. Students will receive up to £1,000 each to help them towards gaining employment, which could be used to fund internships, work experience, and volunteering opportunities.
The final area of support will be Brighter Future Grants which will provide 10 students with a £1,000 grant each year. These awards will be available to all students at the University of Bradford.
