Moneyreagh man named as top university student

Moneyreagh man named as top university student

27 March 2013

UNDERGRADUATE Duncan McGregor is Ireland’s top university student.

The 22 year-old from Moneyreagh won the recent National Student Challenge, seeing off 5,500 of his peers who entered the prestigious competition.

The number of entrants was whittled down to 80 and Duncan, a third year law student at the University of Ulster, and his fellow finalists were last week set a series of gruelling tasks by eight of Ireland’s top graduate employers.

In addition to being crowned overall champion, Duncan also won the debating competition. The outdoor sports enthusiast collected £855 in prize money, £256 worth of travel vouchers and an internship at leading business services firm Ernst & Young,

Duncan said he was “absolutely gobsmacked” when he was announced as the overall winner and admits his success still hasn’t sunk in.

“I honestly thought I didn’t have a chance. I was only told I was through to the final just a few days beforehand, so there wasn’t much time to prepare,” he revealed.

“There was a separate winner for each of the eight challenges and after I received the Ernst & Young prize for the debating task, I really didn’t think that I could win twice. When they announced that I was also top overall, I couldn’t believe it.”

Duncan added: “One of the most important things I learned was that interviews are now almost obsolete when companies are recruiting graduates.

“The tests I took part in during the challenge were lifted straight from graduate recruitment days and it’s these sort of tests that graduates will face in company assessment centres.”