A University of Liverpool student has won the first prize in a national Entrepreneurship Award.
University of Liverpool Management School Liverpool MBA graduate Rahul Pushp won a prize of £20,000 after coming top in the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Award. His winning business plan aims to provide electricity to developing countries by harnessing solar renewable energy.
The Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards, now in its third year, is funded by the Santander Universities Global Division and aims to support and encourage university students to pursue their business ideas. The competition is open to students from 66 UK universities.
Delighted
Rahul Pushp, who is now the owner and director of i-Solarlite which aims to harness solar renewable energy on a large scale, said: “The competition for this award was really tough, and I’m absolutely delighted to have won. A big thank you has to go to the University of Liverpool Management School and Professor Murray Dalziel, for all the support they provided in the founding days of i-Solarlite Ltd.”
Commenting on the award, Director of the University of Liverpool Management School, Professor Murray Dalziel said: “Rahul is a dedicated and talented entrepreneur, and I’m delighted that he has won this award. Our School is a leading centre for management and leadership training, education and research and students like Rahul are a perfect example of what we encourage our students to aspire to achieve.”
Emilio Botin, Chairman of the Santander Group, said: “At Santander we are fully aware of the fact that the unemployment rate among young people has been on the increase in the past few years. To counteract this trend we need to foster entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial attitudes in university students. The quality of entries in the current edition has been extremely high, which shows the great potential these entrepreneurs have for the UK economy.”
Shortlisted
Five undergraduates and five postgraduates were shortlisted in each category after being selected from more than 150 entries by a panel of judges from several UK universities, business schools and Santander.
The University of Liverpool joined the Santander Universities Global Division last year to provide scholarship support and awards to home, EU and overseas students studying at undergraduate and postgraduate level. The aim of the agreement is to foster internationalisation and to promote the transfer of knowledge between institutions as well as to give a financial boost to entrepreneurs and researchers in their projects.
