The University of Sunderland is celebrating after scooping the silver award for Best Open Day Experience 2021 at the prestigious HEIST Awards.
The annual HEIST – Higher Education Information Services Trust – event celebrates excellence in marketing, public relations and advertising for universities and colleges across the UK.
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.
Sunderland is the only North East university to be shortlisted in this category.
Francesca Carey, Director of Home Student Recruitment at the University of Sunderland, said: “We are delighted that the quality and accessibility of our online open days has been recognised today at the annual HEIST Awards. Colleagues have worked tirelessly since early 2020, to ensure that our prospective students and their supporters feel equipped to make important decisions about the next step in their education journey.
“As an institution, we have embraced the challenges that the pandemic has posed, continuously innovating and improving, to offer a ‘slice of student life’ in the online format. I am so proud of what we have achieved as an institution – and as a sector – the Best Open Day Experience category is more competitive than ever this year, which makes winning silver even more of an achievement.”
The University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for External Relations, Graeme Thompson MBE, said: “Winning the silver award is 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.”
Read more about the University’s open days here: https://www.sunderland.ac.uk/open-days/