A capital year for North East university

Staff at Sunderland University are celebrating the first year of the North East institution’s London Campus, at Canary Wharf.

The £4m campus offers a range of busienss related undergraduate and postgraduate programmes for international students, and since April 2012 has hosted over 1,700 students.

Vice Chancellor, Professor Peter Fidler, was in London to meet colleagues and celebrate. He said: “This first year for the University’s London Campus has been very positive. Student numbers grew substantially last year and are set to rise further this year. The London Campus development was undoubtedly integral to the University being shortlisted for University of Year in the Times Higher Education Awards.

“2013 marks the 21st anniversary of Sunderland gaining university status, and as we celebrate this significant milestone, I was very pleased to have the opportunity to celebrate another important milestone with our colleagues in London.

“The University of Sunderland is a great institution and has taken a strategic move to establish a campus in London. It is now up to the University’s education managers to see an opportunity and take the campus to be among the world’s most sought-after institutions,” says Veen Pula, from EThames education providers, who helped establish London Campus.

“The UK is the world’s second largest higher education service provider for international aspirants and has some of the highly ranked universities located here. Among all the cities in the world, London is in the forefront in attracting maximum numbers of international students for higher education, thus, throwing up immense opportunities for growth. The University of Sunderland London Campus is strategically positioned to introduce some of the most sought after and advanced programs because of the availability of teaching talent pool in that city, while it is also well connected to the knowledge and trade capitals of the world.”

Alan Hardie, London Campus’ Head of Operations, added: “Being a part of the opening and development of the University’s London Campus has been an unbelievable adventure for me personally, and I feel passionately that the Campus will continue to make a valuable contribution to the other great things Sunderland does.”