Case Study: University of West England uses Sophos solutions to protect thousands of students across multiple campuses
At the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), cybersecurity plays a critical role in ensuring uninterrupted education for 38,000 students spread across multiple campuses.
Facing limited visibility and mounting cyber threats, UWE knew it needed to evolve from reactive defense to resilient protection. That transformation began when the university adopted Sophos Managed Detection and Response (MDR) — combining world-class technology with 24/7 expert monitoring.
With over 38,000 students and 4,500 staff, UWE Bristol is one of the U.K.’s largest and most digitally advanced universities. Managing sensitive data across sprawling campuses, the university needed a cybersecurity solution that could keep pace with its scale, complexity, and mission.
From reactive to resilient
Before partnering with Sophos, UWE’s internal cybersecurity team faced familiar challenges: limited visibility, alert fatigue, and an inability to monitor systems around the clock. Running a full in-house SOC wasn’t feasible, and the team was stretched thin trying to triage low-priority alerts while staying compliant with evolving regulations.
In 2023, UWE replaced its legacy antivirus solution — limited in scope and lacking real-time response — with Sophos MDR, gaining 24/7 expert monitoring and threat containment.
“Before Sophos MDR, we were reactive and had limited visibility. Now, we have 24/7 monitoring, can respond to threats quickly, and have significantly reduced our cyber risk,” says Dom Leung, the Head of Cybersecurity at UWE Bristol.
According to the Sophos 2025 State of Ransomware in Education report, 49% of higher education ransomware attacks stem from unknown vulnerabilities. For UWE, closing those gaps meant moving from fragmented alerts to unified insight — from scrambling to contain threats to proactively reducing risk.
Why MDR Made a difference
Sophos MDR now protects over 10,000 devices across UWE’s network. The service delivers:
- 24/7 threat hunting and response, even during weekends and holidays.
- Daily alert triage, filtering out noise and surfacing only validated, high-priority incidents.
- Real-time containment, with Sophos MDR analysts isolating machines and neutralizing threats.
- Seamless integration with UWE’s existing tech stack.
This partnership has reshaped how UWE approaches cybersecurity. Instead of scrambling to chase alerts, the team now operates with clarity and confidence, focusing on long-term risk reduction and strategic planning.
“We can now quantify our strategic cyber risk, and we’ve demonstrated a reduction in our risk profile,” Leung says.
Sophos MDR now serves as an extension of UWE’s team — delivering expert-led protection, active threat hunting, and rapid response that builds long-term resilience.
“We’re definitely seeing return on investment, and our confidence is building more and more,” Leung says.
For UWE Bristol, prevention-first defense is no longer aspirational — it’s operational. And with Sophos MDR, the university continues to set the standard for resilient, always-on cybersecurity in higher education.
Learn how Sophos MDR helps education institutions stay protected around the clock: sophos.com/mdr.
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