Bristol students among the finalists at national enterprise competition

The University of Bristol 'FLUX 500' student team

27 April 2010

A University of Bristol student team has made it through to the finals of the FLUX 500 competition, the UK's largest inter-university enterprise challenge.

The competition, developed by The Working Knowledge Group, involves teams of students from across the UK competing against each other in a business challenge. Aimed at university students to teach them how businesses are set up and developed, the event also seeks to improve their employability by equipping them with new business skills.

As part of the two-day competition, teams of six students were presented with a scenario describing a challenging business situation that they had to overcome. After the preliminary heats, four teams from the University of Bedfordshire, University College Plymouth MarJon, Nottingham Trent University and the University of Bristol were chosen to compete in a final head-to-head challenge. With only 15 minutes to prepare, the teams then faced a tense press conference grilling from four of the toughest business experts.

After competing against 33 teams from universities across the country, the Bristol team lost out at the final stages to the University of Bedfordshire team who were awarded the title of ‘FLUX 500 2010 National Champions’.

Over 40 business experts from organisations that included KPMG, Experian and Backup Direct, were on hand to meet and guide the students through the challenge.

Hosted by Nottingham Trent University's enterprise development unit, The Hive, the competition was sponsored by Experian, the Greater Nottingham Partnership, Backup Direct, NCGE, and the Nottinghamshire City & County Employment and Skills Board.

The Bristol team comprised Muhummed Mubarak Shamim (Economics and Accounting), Jethro Hancock (Historical Studies), Parijat Kumar (Economics and History), Sophie Page (Geography), Ziwei Fan (Economics and Mathematics) and Jordan Fish (Computer Science), with support from George Mills, a consultant from the University of Bristol’s Research and Enterprise Development.