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Warwick awarded £100,000 for 10 Ford Scholarships

Today, Wednesday February 1st, William Clay Ford, great-grandson of Henry Ford and executive chairman of Ford Motor Company announced that the University of Warwick is one of only a dozen UK universities to be awarded funding from the Ford Blue Oval Scholarship Programme. Warwick has been given 10 undergraduate scholarships by Ford that will each provide sponsorship of £10,000 per student over a three year period.

The award of these 10 scholarships to Warwick was announced at a special event hosted by The Rt. Hon. David Willetts MP, Minister of State for Universities and Science, Joe Greenwell, chairman, Ford of Britain, and attended by Warwick’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nigel Thrift.

The event held at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills was a roundtable discussion on “How can Government, businesses and universities work together to ensure that the manufacturing sector has the skills to keep the UK competitive?”

The scholarship programme was originally announced in 2011 by William Clay Ford, executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, who announced a new £1 million UK university scholarship programme in technical and innovation fields to mark 100 years of Ford's commitment to the UK. The Programme is providing 100 student scholarships across a number of leading universities to encourage a new generation of engineers, scientists and innovators. Today sees the announcement of which 12 universities have been awarded scholarships under this scheme.

Warwick’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nigel Thrift said:“This is a most welcome and timely initiative by Ford. Just a few months ago I helped launch a report published by the Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE) which found that building a strong manufacturing and engineering base will be vital to the UK’s economic recovery but warned that the country needs to encourage more young people to consider careers in manufacturing and engineering. This £1 million scholarship programme directly addresses that need to encourage more young people to become engineers, scientists and innovators.”

Notes for editors: 

The scholarships will be available for students enrolling on selected courses at a range of universities but with a focus on engineering, science, manufacturing technology, environmental technology, materials technology, applied mathematics and computer science. The universities taking part in the programme are: Bath, Bradford, Brunel, Cardiff, East Anglia, Imperial College London, Loughborough, Nottingham, Southampton, Strathclyde, Surrey and Warwick.

About Ford of Britain

  • Ford of Britain is celebrating both 100 years as a leading marketing and sales operation in the UK, reinforcing its relationship with a country which has made it the market leader in car sales for 35 consecutive years and the commercial vehicle sales leader for 46 years.
  • In the UK, Ford directly employs over 15,000 people, many in highly skilled roles developing and building high-technology, fuel-efficient, low CO2 engines, but in total 100,000 jobs are supported through the Ford supplier chain and dealer network.
  • Ford's recently announced £1.5 billion investment in low-carbon engineering and manufacturing is helping to underpin the UK's manufacturing and export-based economic recovery.
  • Ford plants at Bridgend in South Wales and Dagenham in East London have the combined capacity to assemble two million engines annually so that one in three Ford vehicles globally can be powered by a UK-built engine.
  • Ford's Dunton Technical Centre in Essex is the global centre of excellence for diesel powertrain R&D and for European commercial vehicles.