Five Loughborough University students have received Engineering Leadership Advanced Awards from the Royal Academy of Engineering.

They are Gideon Hammond (Chemical Engineering with Management), Sarah Parsons (Product Design Engineering), Shakti Patel (Aeronautical Engineering), Nicole Perrin (Chemical Engineering), and Edward James Rogers (Mechanical Engineering).

Only Imperial College London received more awards, six, than Loughborough whose five was matched by one other institution, Queen’s University Belfast.

Those three universities received 16 of the 36 awards made this year for a scheme which is extremely competitive and enrols only the best students.

The Advanced Award Scheme is open to second year engineering undergraduates on a four year engineering degree, or third year engineering undergraduates on a five year degree.

The Engineering Leadership Award Scheme was created by The Royal Academy of Engineering to help undergraduates, the engineers of tomorrow, realise their potential and achieve their goals.

The students are given up to £5,000 to carry out a personal development plan over three years.

The Awards are made to provide students with a carefully planned training and experience which may not be available to them through their university, giving them the skills to fast-track their career after graduating.

The students choose the training, which can include business courses, language training, technical development, project management or any recognised professional development course.

And they will have access to a mentoring panel of Sainsbury Management Fellows.

They will also meet Fellows, Sainsbury Management Fellows, and other Award holders from their year group and other year groups at an annual weekend event.