Scholarships, travel grants and internships for students will be among the benefits of an agreement signed this week between the University and Santander, through its Santander Universities Global Division.
Santander Universities will make available scholarships and awards initially for a period of three years.
The awards will be open to undergraduate or postgraduate students, and to University staff undertaking research projects in the UK or overseas in countries which have also signed collaboration agreements with Santander Universities, an international group of universities with three similar goals in common: internationalisation, transfer of knowledge, and fostering of entrepreneurial skills.
Support will also be offered to encourage Aberdeen students to develop their entrepreneurial skills, including taking part in annual ‘pitching’ events, and other interaction between promising entrepreneurs and experts from the business community.
Santander will support ‘incubator’ spaces for the most promising entrepreneurial team or student to help them develop a business plan related to the energy sector, and a programme of seminars for business students to help hone their knowledge and familiarity with the modern world of finance.
This agreement is expected to further stimulate collaborations and partnerships between the University of Aberdeen and universities and organisations within the network, including work placements and exchange programmes for students.
The Santander Universities Global Division has partnerships with universities in 20 countries: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Germany, Ghana, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, United Arab Emirates, UK, Uruguay, and USA.
Luis Juste, Director, Santander Universities UK said: “Today we celebrate the addition of a new partner to the big Santander Universities family. Despite being over 500 years old, the University of Aberdeen stands out for its forward-thinking and the huge investment made towards research activities. In addition, the fact that it’s one of the most international universities in the UK made it an obvious choice for us to welcome Aberdeen as a new partner.”
Welcoming the agreement, University Principal Professor Sir Ian Diamond said: “We are delighted to enter this new partnership, which will bring many benefits for our students, and great opportunities for them and the University as part of this growing international network.”