University of Surrey - Back the Bike!

The crowdfunding campaign for the Santander Cycles University Challenge concluded on Friday 8 December and the University of Surrey raised £69,906 - 137% of the original crowdfunding target of £51,000. With fantastic campaigns from all the universities that took part, Surrey placed 4th overall.

We are delighted to announce that Surrey have since accepted the runner’s up prize of £75,000 from nextbike, the European leader of bike share schemes. This agreement will use the crowdfunded money and a further £25,000 investment from the University to install the 50 bikes and docking stations across our sites. The scheme will be operational in June 2018 with the view to expanding the scheme into Guildford over the coming months.

Surrey’s campaign crowd was over 450 strong, with support from staff, students, local businesses and our Guildford community. This widespread support for the Back the Bike campaign shows the enthusiasm for a reliable, affordable bike network that will benefit and connect lots of different groups in our community.

Ed Nelson, Transport Manager said: “This is fantastic news for the University and this scheme will become a fundamental part of our Sustainable Travel Plan. I look forward to working with nextbike, Santander and partners in the local business community to make this scheme a success in Guildford.

Julian Scriven, nextbike UK Managing Director, said: “We’re delighted to be able to bring bike-share to Surrey thanks to the phenomenal efforts from everyone involved in the campaign. It was great to see how the university and local community really got behind the campaign and we hope they will continue to Back the Bike once the scheme is up and running in the summer.

“nextbikes are one of the most affordable modes of transport around, with prices starting from as little as 8p per day for students. And with the other added benefits, including improving health and reducing congestion, bike-share will be a fantastic addition to the area.”

Matt Hutnell, Director of Santander Universities UK, said: “We are delighted that following the success of the Santander Cycles University Challenge, the University of Surrey has the opportunity for their proposed cycle scheme to go ahead next year. Santander is committed to supporting both higher education and local communities across the UK, and we hope this cycle scheme makes a big difference to life on campus as well as the local area.”

The crowdfunding team would like to thank everyone who supported the scheme and helped make it a huge success. We will write to you all in the New Year with details of your pledge rewards and how these will be fulfilled.

Look out for more updates in 2018!