Warwick signs deal with Santander

Santander one of the world’s largest banks has signed a three year deal with the University of Warwick that will see the university join the “Santader Universities” group.

The group contains over 700 universities across the world in Spain, Portugal, Latin America, China, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The agreement will provide: scholarships for postgraduate students from Iberoamerican countries in the ‘Santander Universities’ network, a research grant fund to support research and study visits by Warwick’s academics and students as well as the creation of three Abbey Visiting Fellowships for eminent scholars and practitioners in Warwick’s Institute of Advanced Study.

Warwick Volunteers will also be given assistance to develop programmes to help the large Portuguese community in Leamington Spa and three prizes will be given in a competition to identify the best ideas from students for community action projects

“I am very happy to be making a commitment on behalf of the University of Warwick to a long-term partnership with Santander Universities. It is a partnership with enormous potential for Warwick, enabling us to offer new opportunities to students and to build exciting research programmes,” said Professor Thrift, Vice Chancellor of the University of Warwick.

CEO of Abbey, a bank now owned by Santander, António Horta-Osório said, “We, at Abbey, are delighted to be signing this agreement with the University of Warwick. Santander shares a fundamental objective with the university sector: to contribute towards the development and prosperity of society. We look forward to working with a world-class university such as Warwick to promote the exchange of knowledge and foster its international links with Institutions within the ‘Santander Universities’ network.

Santander, one of the largest banks in the world, created ‘Santander Universities’ in 1996 to support the Higher Education sector in such areas as teaching and research, international cooperation, knowledge and technology transfer, entrepreneurial initiatives, student mobility and innovation. Under this proposal nearly £500m has been given to Universities across the world. ‘Santander Universities’ were introduced in the UK in 2007 through Abbey National plc and the bank is already collaborating with twenty-eight British Universities and Higher Education Institutions with similar agreements as the one signed with the University of Warwick, focused in promoting international exchange, entrepreneurial activities and the mobility of students and researchers within the network.

‘Santander Universities’ initiatives include the granting of over 12,000 scholarships a year to promote study, research and initial professional work experience and bursaries to facilitate student and staff mobility between universities in the network; and aid to 2,500 research groups and projects