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.”
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