Bright sparks

A new undergraduate sponsorship scheme aims to entice more students onto electrical and electronic engineering courses and give employers early access to talented people.

, which is backed by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, hopes to boost the number studying in areas such as energy conversion, power electronics, machines and generators, electrical drives and control engineering.

Employers signed up to become members of the academy are Siemens Automation and Drives, GE Aviation, Control Techniques, Converteam, Parker SSD and Cummins Generator Technologies.

They now sponsor students who have applied for relevant courses at Nottingham and Newcastle universities, but other major universities including Manchester and Bristol have also expressed an interest in joining the academy.

'As new universities are added, we would like new companies to come on board as well,' said Prof Greg Asher, head of the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Nottingham.

According to Asher, the universities would benefit from attracting more students thanks to the added kudos of having major businesses backing their degrees.