Three students at the University of Sunderland have provided internal consultancy for a digital project that the institution said has saved in thousands of pounds.
George Atkinson, Menna Ghonem and Jason Swinner, all second year BSc computer sciences students, have supported its technical services department in migrating its database to a cloud platform through translating reports from Oracle to Microsoft systems.
They provided the service as part of the university’s Digital Incubator, which supports students, graduates and staff in exploring freelance work.
The university said this has saved on consultancy fees of around £1,500 per day and a further cost of £250,000 if it had failed to hit its deadline for the change.
Enthusiasm and work ethic
Amanda Watson, deputy director of finance at the university, said: “Menna, George and Jason had the opportunity to engage with a work based project and bring their specialised knowledge and skills that they had gained in the second year of study.
“They were enthusiastic and had a good work ethic which enabled the project to be completed within timescale.”
The Digital Incubator was launched last year with support from UK Research and Innovation, the North East Local Enterprise Partnership and the European Regional Development Fund. It provides members with a physical space to work, access to academics for mentoring, business workshops and access to kit.
