Student entrepreneurs from across the UK were today recognised and rewarded at the fifth annual Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards ceremony at Santander UK’s headquarters in London

1. NEWS
UK’s Most Entrepreneurial Students Announced
• Santander Universities announces 2,000 international mobility grants, 2,000
internships, 500 work placements and a new Digital Fund.
• Event attended by 48 University VCs, Principles and Presidents.
• Mediwikis from Newcastle University wins top £20,000 prize.
London, 3rd July 2015. Student entrepreneurs from across the UK were today recognised
and rewarded at the fifth annual Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards ceremony
at Santander UK’s headquarters in London.
The Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards support and encourage university
students to pursue their business ideas by awarding the best with cash prizes. Research
conducted by Santander Universities (1) UK revealed that almost a quarter (24 per cent) of
university students run their own business or plan to start a business while at university.
Santander Universities also announced 2,000 mobility awards to allow both international
and UK students to continue their studies and research abroad; 2,000 internships as part of
its SME Internship Programme, and 500 SME work placements for undergraduates, to help
students enter the job market and give SMEs access to young talent and a new Digital Fund
to provide £5,000 to each of its 78 university partners for digital activities aimed at the
development of research or education.
The six winning entries were selected from a shortlist of 10 entrepreneurial projects by a
panel of judges representing several UK universities, business schools and Santander. Each
of the six have won cash prizes ranging from £1,000 to £20,000.
The undergraduate winners were PickProtection from the University of Strathclyde (first
prize), Roomshake from the University of Lancaster (second prize) and BeautyFind from
Queen’s University Belfast (third prize).
The postgraduate winners were Mediwikis from Newcastle University (first prize),
WingLights from City University London (second prize) and @Shrimpingit from the University
of Lancaster (third prize).
During the event, which hosted 48 VCs, Principles and Presidents from Universities and
Colleges across the country, Nathan Bostock, Chief Executive Officer at Santander UK
stressed the importance of supporting Higher Education: “There is no better way to invest in
society than through education. Since 2007, Santander Universities has invested £40 million
in the UK and this is expected to exceed £60 million by the end of 2016.
Santander Universities UK
Sarah Webster / Carlos Prado-Leira
Mobile: 07568112529 / Mobile: 07824526390
The press office operates from 8.00am to 6.00pm. Outside of these hours please call 0800 5877708.
Comunicación Global Santander Universidades
Ana Núñez / Sonia Pérez / Marta Gallardo / Ignacio Marín
+34 615 90 29 46 | +34 615 90 74 04 | +34 615 371 838 | +34 615 901 256
comunicacionsantanderuniversidades@gruposantander.com
www.santander.com/universidades / Twitter: @bancosantander

2. The UK needs new ideas, state of the art products and innovative companies, and it’s
impressive to see so many students demonstrating a great deal of skill and initiative. The UK
has one of the best higher education systems in the world and is the perfect breeding ground
for entrepreneurs. At Santander we want to reward and encourage students to dare to
invent, innovate, create, and be entrepreneurial.”
Stuart Maitland, 22 years old from Whitley Bay and Co-founder of Mediwikis commented:
“We are extremely happy to win these awards as it enables us to enter a new phase of
growth with the project. It will also allow us to reach out to more and more campuses across
the UK and help more medical students to build their own learning communities on campus.
Lots of developing countries completely lack eLearning resources. They have textbooks, but
the textbooks are slow to get into the country. There’s no way for students to share the
resources that are relevant to them and that can make them the best practitioners that they
can be. We provide Mediwikis completely free in these countries, and we started by setting
up in Rwanda and Zambia”.
Notes to Editors
1. Research conducted by YouthSight, 24th
-26th June 2014 amongst a UK representative sample
of 2,000 full time undergraduate students.
The information contained in our press releases is intended solely for journalists and should not be
used by consumers to make financial decisions.
About the Winners
Pick Protection (University of Strathclyde). A revolutionary wearable personal attack alarm – the
Personal Guardian.
Roomshake (University of Lancaster). A market leading platform for young professionals to find
flatmates, network and find quality accommodation.
BeautyFind (Queen’s University Belfast). BeautyFind is a new business offering an online
appointment finder for health and beauty services, existing both as a website and an app
available for free download.
Mediwikis (Newcastle University). Mediwikis is an innovative start-up which aims to improve the
quality of medical education through fostering rich and original collaborations.
WingLights (City University London). Directional indicators for bicycles that fit on the end of
straight handlebars, with the same function as indicators on cars and motorcycles.
@ShrimpingIt (University of Lancaster) offers open programmable electronics for UK educators.
Santander Universities UK
Sarah Webster / Carlos Prado-Leira
Mobile: 07568112529 / Mobile: 07824526390
The press office operates from 8.00am to 6.00pm. Outside of these hours please call 0800 5877708.
Comunicación Global Santander Universidades
Ana Núñez / Sonia Pérez / Marta Gallardo / Ignacio Marín
+34 615 90 29 46 | +34 615 90 74 04 | +34 615 371 838 | +34 615 901 256
comunicacionsantanderuniversidades@gruposantander.com
www.santander.com/universidades / Twitter: @bancosantander

3. About Santander Universities
Since 1997 Santander has signed 1,200 collaboration agreements with universities and higher
education institutions in 20 countries. The agreements focus on promoting international
exchange, entrepreneurial activities and the mobility of students and researchers within the
network, as well as internships in SMEs for students.
For the past 18 years, Santander Universities has been the focus of the Bank's social action with
an investment of more than 1.2 billion euros in different initiatives and university projects. In the
UK, 78 universities partner with Santander and in 2014 alone the bank funded over 2,400
scholarships and mobility awards. In addition, the Bank has close to 60 university branches in UK
campuses. Further information: www.santander.com/universities
About Santander UK
Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and
commercial financial products and services. It has brought real competition to the UK, through its
1|2|3 products for retail customers and relationship banking model for UK SMEs. As at 31
December 2014, Santander UK was the most switched to bank, attracting 1 in 4 new retail
customers. The bank serves more than 14 million active customers with c. 20,000 employees
and operates through 921 branches and 66 regional Corporate Business Centres. Santander UK is
subject to the full supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation
Authority (PRA) in the UK. Santander UK plc customers are protected by the Financial Services
Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK.
Banco Santander (SAN.MC, STD.N, BNC.LN) is a leading retail and commercial bank, based in
Spain, with a meaningful market share in 10 core countries in Europe and the Americas.
Santander is the largest bank in the euro zone by market capitalization and among the top 12
banks on a global basis. Founded in 1857, Santander had EUR 1.43 trillion in managed funds,
12,950 branches and 185,400 employees at the close of 2014. In 2014 Santander made an
attributable profit of EUR 5,816 million, 39% more than the previous year.
Santander Universities UK
Sarah Webster / Carlos Prado-Leira
Mobile: 07568112529 / Mobile: 07824526390
The press office operates from 8.00am to 6.00pm. Outside of these hours please call 0800 5877708.
Comunicación Global Santander Universidades
Ana Núñez / Sonia Pérez / Marta Gallardo / Ignacio Marín
+34 615 90 29 46 | +34 615 90 74 04 | +34 615 371 838 | +34 615 901 256
comunicacionsantanderuniversidades@gruposantander.com
www.santander.com/universidades / Twitter: @bancosantander