A team of five undergraduate students from Warwick Business School and the Economics Department have beaten off competitors from other top UK universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, to win the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Indian Summer Challenge.

Each member of the team had to fight hard and perform successfully just to gain entry to the competition, with around 100 interviews, held by Royal Bank of Scotland judges, at Warwick alone. The judges selected students and put them into a team of five at each university.

The Warwick team was:

• Victor Lundsten (WBS BSc Accounting & Finance)
• Ben Kinet and
• Maria Osorio (both WBS BSc Management)
• Asim Khalid and
• Louise Mewett (both studying at the Department of Economics).

The competition was a series of challenges from March to May this year, culminating in planning and carrying out a one-day fund-raising event to raise as much money as possible for the charity the Prince's Trust. The Warwick team chose to base themselves at Old Spitalfields Market in London. Their main attraction was a Formula One (F1) simulator car, with prizes for the fastest-recorded driver, or team of 5 drivers. Delicious Hummingbird cupcakes were also available to help persuade spectators and passers-by to part with their cash.

The team's efforts raised £2,800 in profits, and they then faced the following day giving a presentation at RBS offices. They were delighted to find they had won the competition - a 3-week all expenses paid trip in September to India, where they will spend two weeks helping the RBS community project SUPPORT with the remaining time in the RBS Global Banking & Markets Mumbai offices.

Dean of WBS Professor Mark Taylor said:

"We are really proud of these undergraduate students, as they put into practice some of the skills they have been learning at Warwick. Their team-working abilities and creativity set them on the path to victory, and they followed up their planning with excellent performance on the fund-raising day and great communication skills in front of the judges. I am sure they will enjoy and benefit enormously from their time in India."