University of Birmingham student recognised as engineering rising star and awarded with a Diamond Jubilee Scholarship

A student from the University of Birmingham has received the Diamond Jubilee Scholarship from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). The IET’s Diamond Jubilee Scholarships offer long-term financial support to 100 students from across the UK. The company and its partners are set invest £3 million in the UK’s up and coming engineering talent over the next five years to tackle the lack of engineers.

The Birmingham recipient is just one many talented engineering students who has been awarded the prestigious IET award.

IET logo

Now in its fifth year, the scholarships will provide each winner with at least £1,000 per academic year. Winners will also benefit from mentoring and work experience placements through the IET’s extensive networks, in an attempt to close the ever growing skills gap.

This year, 100 scholarships were awarded to students who started either a Masters or an Undergraduate engineering degree at a UK based university in the autumn of 2016. Of the 100 awarded 51% of these were to female candidates.

Jeremy Watson, IET President commented: “In a world where technology is moving faster than ever before, I believe we need to think more broadly and remove unnecessary barriers that might be discouraging more young people from becoming engineers. In other words, we need to be more inclusive about inspiring and recruiting the next generation of engineers.

“With this in mind, we are really pleased to give financial help to the 100 young people as a result of our prestigious Diamond Jubilee scholarship. We hope that they will go on to become the leaders of tomorrow in an industry which offers a diverse range of exciting opportunities and challenges.”

The investment is being made in collaboration with the Belling Charitable Settlement, the ERA Foundation, The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, Siemens ,BAE Systems and BT.

The IET Diamond Jubilee Scholarship programme is open to all UK students hoping to achieve 3 ‘A’s at A Level, 3 'A' grade Advanced Highers, 5 'A' grade Highers or an International Baccalaureate Diploma at 36 points or above and who are applying to join an IET accredited engineering or technology degree course.  Those who are selected receive at least £1,000 per year during their studies.

Prospective students who are wishing to apply for a Diamond Jubilee Scholarship can apply online soon. See www.theiet.org/diamond.

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Case studies of past and current Diamond Jubilee Scholarship recipients are available.

More about the IET Diamond Jubilee Scholarships and the IET’s Awards programme

  • The IET has a portfolio of awards which includes Diamond Jubilee scholarships, Apprentice and Technician awards, scholarships in India, the Present around the World competition, Innovation Awards, the Young Woman Engineer of the Year awards and the IET A F Harvey Engineering Research Prize.
  • For more information about the Diamond Jubilee Scholarships visit www.theiet.org/diamond 

More about the IET

  • The IET is one of the world’s largest engineering institutions with over 167,000 members in 127 countries. It is also the most interdisciplinary – to reflect the increasingly diverse nature of engineering in the 21st century. Energy, transport, manufacturing, information and communications, and the built environment: the IET covers them all.
  • The IET is working to engineer a better world by inspiring, informing and influencing our members, engineers and technicians, and all those who are touched by, or touch, the work of engineers.
  • We want to build the profile of engineering and change outdated perceptions about engineering in order to tackle the skills gap. This includes encouraging more women to become engineers and growing the number of engineering apprentices.