National honour for city university

The University of Sunderland is celebrating after scooping an award for showing potential students what it has to offer.

The university scooped a silver award for Best Open Day Experience at the prestigious Higher Education Information Services Trust (HEIST) Awards.

The award recognises excellence in marketing, public relations and advertising for universities and colleges.

This year, the University’s open days were held online due to the coronavirus pandemic and have been so successful that they are expected to run alongside on-campus open days in the future.

The university’ s pro-vice chancellor for external relations, Graeme Thompson, said: “Winning this award is a brilliant recognition of the innovative work being done here in Sunderland to engage and inform potential students about study options during this time of Covid and beyond.

“We’ve had great feedback about the experience, and I want to congratulate the teams across the University who’ve worked so hard to seamlessly integrate great content and personal contact with accessible online formats.”

Francesca Carey, director of home student recruitment, said: “We are delighted that the quality and accessibility of our online open days has been recognised. Colleagues have worked tirelessly since early 2020, to ensure that our prospective students and their supporters feel equipped to make important decisions.

“As an institution, we have embraced the challenges that the pandemic has posed, and I am so proud of what we have achieved.”

For information about open days, go to https://www.sunderland.ac.uk/open-days/