Professor Steve Smith, Vice-Chancellor, (right), signs a partnership agreement with Luis Juste (left) Director UK and Portugal for Santander Universities.

Exeter and Santander Universities join forces

The University of Exeter and Abbey, part of the Santander Group, have joined forces to provide scholarship support and awards to students.

Under the partnership, the company will provide £120,000 worth of financial support over the next three years to fund studentships and bursaries.

The aim is to help the exchange and movement of students to the UK from Latin America, Portugal and Spain and to encourage UK students to study and research in Spain, Portugal and Latin America.

The agreement includes:

  • 2 scholarships for PhD students working in an area of Hispanic Studies.
  • 6 bursaries to encourage University of Exeter students to study, work and carry out research in Latin America.
  • 4 travel scholarships in order to strengthen and develop research links between Exeter and Mexico.
  • Funding for 2 research projects to enhance links between Exeter and Iberoamerica.

As part of the agreement, the University of Exeter will join the ‘Santander Universities’ network of more than 700 universities in Latin America, Portugal, Spain, Russia, Morocco, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Professor Steve Smith, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Exeter, said: “We are delighted and proud to become a partner of the Santander network of universities around the world. This partnership comes as we move forward with the internationalisation of the University. Our ambition is to be a Top 100 global university by 2015 and partnerships like this will be a vital part of us achieving this goal.”

Luis Juste, Director UK and Portugal for Santander Universities said: “We would like to welcome to our Santander Universities network the University of Exeter, one of the leading universities in the UK. The quality of its teaching and research makes it a partner of choice and we are certain that this collaboration beginning today will benefit the university community as a whole.”

Date: 17 July 2009