Santander Universities
Lancaster University is part of the International Santander Universities network, which specialises in financing and supporting educational institutions. It includes more than 1,100 universities worldwide.
Santander Universities
Since an agreement was signed between Santander Universities and Lancaster University in 2011 the University has awarded more than £800,000 directly to students. The funds are distributed through a range of initiatives, which come under three key priority areas: scholarship support, mobility scholarships and awards and support for entrepreneurial activities.
This partnership allows Lancaster University to continue to enhance the student and staff experience and enrich our research.
For more information please visit the Santander Universities network.
Santander's support for Lancaster University
Scholarship Support, Mobility Scholarships and Awards
Lancaster awards 2 scholarships per year for undergraduate and post graduate students to study within the UK and overseas.
Lancaster also awards a minimum of 20 scholarships and awards annually for students or staff of Lancaster University to study or research overseas.
For information about these scholarships and awards, please contact Tina Bleasdale t.bleasdale@lancaster.ac.uk
Support for entrepreneurial activities
Santander support enables Lancaster University Enterprise Team to provide innovation and entrepreneurial development opportunities through the Work in Progress facilities on campus. These opportunities help students and graduates to develop their entrepreneurial mind-sets and capabilities, and to launch new start-up ventures that survive and thrive, contributing to regional economic growth. Santander funding enables to the team to offer seed funding for new businesses following a successful pitch, R&D funding for pre-starts seeking to validate their business ideas, and prizes for entrepreneurial competitions and challenges.
The Enterprise Team also manages Lancaster’s entries into the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards – one of the largest student and graduate business pitching competitions. The Work in Progress facilities are home to a range of University engagement activities, including problem-solving and consultancy interactions between students, researchers, business development managers, SMEs and community organisations; and SME employer events giving students to access graduate employment opportunities.
For more information about Work in Progress at Lancaster University, please contact workinprogress@lancaster.ac.uk
Internship Schemes
With the support of Santander, we are able to support SMEs to employ talented and skilled students as interns. The programme is aimed at SMEs who can provide paid internships to students and recent graduates of Lancaster University. Since 2013, we have placed 115 students into high quality SMEs. Santander’s funds are matched by businesses at a 50% ratio but often we use our ERDF or HEIF allocation to enable the placement to continue beyond the 10-week placement.
For more information about this project please contact Tara McLaughlin t.mclaughlin@lancaster.ac.uk
News Stories
Quotes from Recipients
“My internship was at Vestergaard, an insecticide – synergist treated net company. While I was there, I got to go through the process of catching mosquitos in the wild, growing them, and then testing the bed nets on the mosquitos. The facility that I was at tested the bed nets that were produced as a quality control step before they were sent out for sale. I found this useful as I plan to pursue tropical medicine in the future, so learning about mosquitos and having such a hands on experience has been invaluable!”
Mac Turner, Biomedicine (2020). Mobility Award Recipient
“I received £500 from the Enterprise Fund, sponsored by Santander Universities, which was very instrumental to the growth of my company. The bulk of the fund was primarily used to cover transportation costs to meet my first three potential clients in London, Leeds and Lancaster. I also used some of the funding to print some business cards for my company, which have been useful at various networking opportunities. Being awarded the enterprise fund made life easier for me at the start and I’m very grateful for that support which I received”.
Samuel Bafunso, MSc International Innovation, Entrepreneurship (2016). Enterprise Funding Recipient
"Lancaster University and the Santander programme's support has been invaluable throughout my recruitment and the placement at M4B and has provided me with a platform to learn and develop digital marketing skills. Consequently, I have now secured a full-time, permanent position as their Junior Digital Marketing Executive and am looking forward to progressing in this career path”.
Leah Derbyshire, English & Creative Writing (2017). Intern at M4B Ltd
Contact Us
By Post
Development and Alumni Relations
C Floor
University House
Lancaster University
Bailrigg, Lancaster
LA1 4YW
United Kingdom
By Phone
+44 (0)1524 594109
We're here Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm
By Email
To contact a member of our team directly, please visit our contact page.
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