Professor Deirdre Heenan, Provost Mageeand Coleraine and Pro Vice Chancellor, Communication, (centre)pictured with staff and students from the Ulster Business School

Business students from the University of Ulster’s Magee campus have raised nearly five thousand pounds for north-west charities.

The first-year students took up the fundraising challenge as part of their induction module at the Ulster Business School.

After embarking on a range of activities including bag packing, street collections, sponsored walks, quizzes and in one case a sponsored head shave, the students raised a total of £4,930.

The funds were presented to three local charities including the Foyle Hospice, Children in Crossfire and the NSPCC at a special ceremony in the Great Hall at Magee.

Congratulating the students Professor Deirdre Heenan, Provost and Pro Vice Chancellor, Communication, said: “Raising nearly five thousand pounds for these three deserving local charities is a fantastic achievement. Your hard work and dedication to this task has been commendable.

“It is important that the University of Ulster reaches out and engages with the community and through this initiative you have truly embraced this ethos. Magee is a city centre campus and projects such as this reflect how you, as students, can contribute to the life of this city.”

Course Director, Gráinne Tuohy, added: “This is a tremendous achievement for students in their first semester of study at the Ulster Business School. This has been a win-win situation for both the students and these local charities. I'd also like to thank the Science Shop for putting us in contact with the charities involved.”

Natasha O’Hagan, a first year business student who took part in the fundraising initiative, said: “This has been a fantastic experience. All of the students enjoyed participating in the task and the fact that the money was going towards such important charities made us even more determined to succeed.”