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Commercial engagement and business support

We offer a range of business support services and expert input from a vastly experienced academic team. We offer both bespoke and generic solutions to help solve problems facing organisations in the commercial sector.

Supporting business development

The University of Sunderland is a life-changing university. We are professions-facing and society-shaping, ensuring we prepare our students for a successful career through study and practical experience. As part of this, we're also committed to using our expertise for knowledge exchange and helping to support local and national businesses achieve their goals.

Get in touch if you have a problem that requires specialist advice and guidance and find out more below about the areas we can assist in. 

A panel of 5 sitting and smiling on chairs on a stage in front of a big sign saying global education forum

Global Education Forum

Formed in 2019, the Global Education Forum was created to bridge a gap in the student community. Each month, a panel of industry experts, academics, students and alumni engage in a discussion focused on a specific topic. This provides students with an innovative way of “teaching beyond the textbook”.

The idea initiated from Derek Watson, Business academic and since has had international reach and won the Improve Network Improvement of the Year 2020 award. As of January 2024, the Forum has hosted 27 events, with 14,517 registrations from over 100 countries, and has seen a 155% audience increase since August 2021.

You can register for the next event here.

Three people sat around a table in cafe drinking coffee and talking to each other

Links with the commercial sector

We have developed strong links with the commercial sector, which has expanded to a local, national, and global scale.  

From Sunderland to Panama, Dubai, and Beijing, we have strong networks and knowledge exchange opportunities. We use this knowledge to provide support and consultancy to local businesses and enrich our students' learning in the classroom and through extracurricular opportunities with potential employers.

Industry-led teaching

We take particular pride in having a fantastic academic teaching team, where our staff are a blend of both academics and consultants covering essential business disciplines.


Some of these areas include digital marketing, business process improvement, supply chain management, quality compliance, leadership, and behavioural enhancement expertise. To ensure our knowledge is continually refreshed, we've established infrastructure such as The Marketing Hub to engage directly with the industry and some of the issues facing it in the modern economy. 

Business services

We have a range of specialist knowledge to help businesses of all sizes, from small and medium-sized enterprises to multi-national organisations. 

In particular, we can provide tailored advice and support in the following areas: 

  • Cultural compliance
  • Digital marketing services
  • Finance and accountancy practices
  • Human resource management strategy and operation support systems
  • Innovation
  • Management and employee development and training services
  • Strategic marketing practices
  • Operations management and supply chain assessment
  • Organisational growth and sustainability models.

Our business offering

We'd love to hear from you! Once you get in touch with a business enquiry, our academic team will assess it and provide a free consultation to understand the problem in more depth.

We'll then scope out how our skill set can help your business and recommend one of the following routes:

  • Funded consultancy
  • Fee-paying consultancy
  • Mentored student support.

Get in touch

Get in touch at business.enquiries@sunderland.ac.uk to find out more about how we can help your business.