A student has won a place at Duke University in the US on a full scholarship.

Seventeen-year-old Ibrahim Butt who is completing his A levels at Cardinal Newman College has won a place and a financial aid package to study at Duke University after participating in the Sutton Trust’s US Programme run in partnership with the US-UK Fulbright Commission.

Ibrahim is from a family of ten from Blackburn and will be in the first generation of his family to attend university.

Last summer, Ibrahim was one of 150 students selected for a summer school in the US at either Yale University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

They competed with over 1,600 applicants to win a place on the programme and spent a week living on campus and visiting a number of other US universities. For over half of the students, this was their first trip to the US.

The students benefited from residential activities and received an intensive programme of support, delivered by the US-UK Fulbright Commission over a number of months before and after their US visit, which covered admission tests, college choices and the application process.

The aim of the Sutton Trust’s US Programme is to encourage academically talented, low and middle income British students to consider studying at American universities.

The 2015 - 2016 programme cohort comes from across the UK and 86% of the students admitted early will be the first in their family to go to university. Of the 43 accepted students, 53% of participants are from households that earn less than £25,000 a year.

Ibrahim said, “I could not believe that I was accepted to Duke as a prestigious Robertson Scholar - an award only given to 16 students from around the world. I can only thank the Sutton Trust Programme with providing me with support to access these new global opportunities.”

Ibrahim is one of 43 students who have been selected under the early application deadline to US universities, and more students will be applying by the January deadline with results available later this spring.

Sir Peter Lampl, Chairman of the Sutton Trust and of the Education Endowment Foundation, said, “Our US Programme is a life-changing experience so I’m delighted that so many young people from low and middle income backgrounds have benefited from it this year.

"The 43 talented students will enjoy a broad and varied curriculum and, with generous financial aid packages on offer, will graduate from some of the world’s best universities debt-free.

“I hope more young people will look to their success and realise that a university education in America is well within their grasp.”

The US Programme is based on the Sutton Trust’s successful flagship programme in the UK which now runs at 10 leading British universities and has benefited over ten thousand state school students.