Goldsmiths signs scholarships and enterprise deal with Santander

A funding partnership worth £150,000 has been agreed between Goldsmiths, University of London and Santander Universities UK.

The award of £50,000 over the next three years will support scholarships and awards aimed at international students as well as entrepreneurship, enterprise and management masterclasses across the university.

Also included in the deal is the implementation of the Santander Skills + programme to deliver a series of “professional skills workshops and activities to aid the employability of the students at the college”.

The funding agreement which runs until 2018 is an extension of an initial three-year partnership signed between Goldsmiths and Santander Universities UK in 2012 – an agreement secured on behalf of the university by Claire MacLean, Director of Student Services, Alumni and Library Services.

The new partnership will see £35,000 a year in scholarship awards shared between postgraduate and undergraduate international students.

This will see seven scholars principally chosen from Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Russia and China receive £5,000 each.

A further £5,000 will go towards supporting entrepreneurship, enterprise and management activities across college.

A highlight of this work at Goldsmiths is the Enterprise Salons delivered by the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship in collaboration with Goldsmiths Careers Service.

The final £10,000 tranche of funding will support the implementation and ongoing support of the Santander Skills+ programme. This delivers a series of professional skills workshops and activities to aid the employability of Goldsmiths students.

In addition to the three-year partnership, Santander Universities UK is set to give Goldsmiths £72,000 in further funding in 2015.

This includes £15,000 for mobility support and £5,000 to improve or introduce digital technology in order to enhance the student and staff experience.

At the signing of the three-year agreement in Deptford Town Hall’s newly-renovated Council Chamber, Warden Patrick Loughrey praised the “vital” relationship between Goldsmiths and Santander – and hailed the exchange of information, working practices and theory the partners enjoy as a result of the agreement.

The Warden said: “Santander’s commitment to higher education is critical. There is also something great about the potential going forward – through working together the two institutions can learn so much from one another.”

Simon Bray, Managing Director Santander Universities UK, said: “London is today perhaps the global hub for innovation and creativity and Goldsmiths plays a key role in this. For Santander, innovation is at the top of our agenda but we also share with Goldsmiths many common values and goals such as internationalisation and our aim to foster entrepreneurial skills.

“This agreement will strengthen the work that we began years ago and we will continue to see many brilliant students and researchers benefit from it.”

Patrick Loughrey (Goldsmiths) and Simon Bray (Santander Universities UK)