We’ve won the Giving Back category in the Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2020

We're excited to announce that we’ve been named the winner of the Giving Back category at this year’s WhatUni Student Choice Awards. The rankings, now in their sixth year, are based on thousands of reviews submitted by students from 150 institutions.

The Giving Back category recognises innovative and impactful campaigns and projects that give back to a community on an international, national and local level in which students have had an active involvement.

Our award submission

Our award submission centred around our International Volunteering Programme which enables students to contribute to charities tackling global issues such as poverty, health, education and conservation. The programme has been substantially upgraded and now offers a stand-alone credit-bearing module, leadership development opportunities for our returning volunteers, and a 40% reduction in costs for students from low-income households to create opportunities for more of our students to give back to the community.

Andy Coppins, Community Engagement and Volunteering Manager within our Centre for Student and Community Engagement (CenSCE) said: "We’re immensely proud of winning this award as my team has put a lot of work into developing our International Volunteering Programme over the last few years, and this is great recognition of their hard work.

"I’d like to thank our charity partners for the amazing work they do in the countries we’re able to send our students to. Ultimately, I’m pleased that this award was chosen by the WhatUni Student Advisory Panel too, as students are at the heart of our IV programme, so thank you to all those students that have taken part in our programmes and contributed to the development and delivery of them."

The impact of our efforts

Over the last nine years, volunteers have fundraised over £120,000 for NTU’s charity partners, and spent approximately 30,000 hours volunteering in-country, demonstrating a real impact to the international communities they’re based within. This money and time have gone towards a host of projects including building playgrounds in schools and community areas in Uganda, providing sports equipment in rural Fiji, and home repairs in an area of high deprivation in Guatemala.

As our students aren’t currently able to volunteer in-country, colleagues within our Centre for Student and Community Engagement (CenSCE) have been exploring innovative opportunities to continue global community impact work. They’re currently working with one of our partners, Think Pacific, to support 19 NTU students undertaking a virtual international volunteering internship.

Visit our international volunteering pages to find out more about our International Volunteering Programme.

Runner-up in the Postgraduate category

We’ve also jumped two places to become this year’s runner up in the Postgraduate category. This award recognises the university that postgraduate students reviewed as giving the best all-round experience.

Some of our postgraduate students said:

“I have been given amazing opportunities to do things outside of my MSc degree which will help me further my career. For example I had the opportunity to attend an ACEs conference held at the university for professionals all over the world.”
Chanté, MSc Applied Child Psychology

“I have gained a ton of knowledge and at the same it has made me grow as a creative and changed the way i think. It has raised my aspirations even further than before. I have made great friends who have made my experience at university really fun.”
Mohamed Shinaz Saeed, MA Branding and Identity