Matt Fuller announced as 2021 winner of Sennheiser’s LIPA Scholarship

First-year BA (Hons) Sound Technology student awarded with annual bursary along with ongoing mentorship and industry engagement

Sound Technology student Matt Fuller has been announced as the winner of Sennheiser’s 2021 LIPA Scholarship. Besides financial support for his tuition, he will receive access to Sennheiser’s network of contacts and the global audio specialist’s industry experience. The LIPA Scholarship selection process started back in May when 11 applications were received from the September 2020 intake of the LIPA Sound Technology course.

The applications were reviewed by Tim Sherratt, Strategic Planning Manager at Sennheiser, and Henrik Oppermann, 3D Sound Specialist at Sonosphere, and were whittled down to six students to go onto the second round of the process.

“Those six students were then challenged to use their creative and technical skills to create a three-minute ‘Sound Walk’,” says Sherratt. “We kept the brief as open as possible to allow the greatest creative freedom.”

With the students allowed back onto campus in March following another lockdown in January, the final selection process this year was able to take place in person. On 17th June, the six students presented their work and explained the process and journey they had embarked upon.

“After each student’s presentation, they were broken into two teams and given a practical challenge based upon their knowledge and experience of fault finding in a pre-configured PA system with a number of hidden issues. This tested students’ behaviour in a stressful situation and showed their abilities to work together as a team,” says Oppermann.

A further selection was then made, and three students, Matt Fuller, Ewan McDonough and Matteo Tondi, were chosen to move on to the final interview round with Sherratt, Oppermann and Jon Thornton, Head of Sound Technology at LIPA.

“It was a very difficult decision to award the scholarship to just one of them as they all were exceptionally good candidates, but ultimately there can be only one winner and the Scholarship was awarded to Matt Fuller,” says Oppermann.

“It is a great vote of confidence from Sennheiser to invest in me in this way, and a great motivation to continue to push myself during my time studying at LIPA,” says Fuller. “I look forward to being able to make use of the amazing contacts and experience as the world of audio starts to open back up. I’m extremely grateful for the financial support given to me and look forward to further developing as a Sound Technology student through this partnership.”

“Sennheiser’s continued support to LIPA students and to LIPA itself, now for more than 25 years, is a truly exceptional thing,” adds Thornton. “We remain grateful and honoured for the trust they put in us and our students and are immensely proud of the achievements, right across the spectrum of the audio industry, of the students they have supported in this time. These achievements have been helped in no small part by this ongoing relationship.”

With the application process being fine-tuned every year to reflect changing industry conditions and new audio developments, Sherratt explains how much it means for the audio specialist to be working with LIPA and heading up Sennheiser’s Scholarship Selection programme.

“It is an honour to be able to support an exceptionally talented student each year with both financial bursary and our mentorship,” he concludes. “Matt Fuller is an exceptional student and individual, and we hope the Sennheiser Scholarship will offer support in his studies as well as give first-hand experience of the industry. We wish Matt all the best and look forward to getting to know him even better during the rest of his time at LIPA!”

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