Realty show yields international scholarship winner

The winner of an Indian reality TV show has scooped a four-year scholarship to study engineering at the University of Warwick.

Arvind Aradhya – an 18-year-old from Bangalore – is the first winner of Scholar Hunt: UK, a programme run by the widely-respected news channel NDTV.

The youngster beat 14,000 other hopefuls to the top spot, after an online general knowledge quiz, engineering exams, a televised interview, a TV quiz and practical ‘scrapheap challenge’.

Arvind said: “I feel very privileged to have won.  Several of my friends also entered, but they fell by the wayside. This gives me the opportunity to study abroad, as well as attend such a well-respected institution.  I never considered Warwick before as I could not have afforded this.”

He was revealed as the winner on prime-time Indian TV on Saturday (18 August 2007).

University spokesperson Richard Fern said: “Maintaining standards was our first priority.  Arvind’s abilities far exceed our normal entry qualifications.    Warwick only takes the brightest and the best – Arvind is certainly both of these.

“Scholar Hunt was more ‘Academic Apprentice’ than Big Brother. We maintained control throughout the programme - it was essentially a televised recruitment process.  The exams were particularly tough with our Professors setting fiendishly difficult problems that even they struggled to answer.”

Arvind will receive a full scholarship for his four years of study.  This will cover living and accommodation expenses as well as his course fees. The scholarship will total £80,000.

This is the first such show, with the University of Warwick seeking to raise its already substantial profile in the key foreign market.  Warwick is one of four British Universities which maintains full-time representatives in India.  Several of its alumni are now leaders of Indian commerce and industry.

 ENDS

Print quality photography

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For further information contact:          Richard Fern, Press Officer,

                                                            Communications Office, University House

                                                            University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 8UW

REF PR 72 RWF 14/08/2007                 07876 217740 email: r.w.fern@warwick.ac.uk