The rankings, now in their sixth year, are based on thousands of reviews submitted by students from 150 institutions.
The university has been named the winner of the Giving Back category at this year’s WhatUni Student Choice Awards.
NTU’s submission centred around the 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 the returning volunteers, and a 40 per cent reduction in costs for students from low-income households to create opportunities for more students to give back to the community.
Andy Coppins, Community Engagement and Volunteering Manager within the 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.”
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 NTU 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 university’s partners, Think Pacific, to support 19 NTU students undertaking a virtual international volunteering internship.
To find out more about the Inetrnational Volunteering Programme, please visit international volunteering NTU.
By Olimpia Zagnat
Featured photo credit: Nottingham Trent University