'The Apprentice' to hit India soon;free UK education to winners

London, Apr 5 (UNI) After the huge success of the Indian version of reality shows like 'Who wants to be a Millionaire', 'American Idol' and the 'Celebrity Big Brother', BBC's cult show 'The Apprentice' will go on air in its Indian avatar from this summer.

Buoyed by the success of such shows in India, five British universities have come forward to offer free undergraduate seats to five winners of the show.

The institutions have expressed the hope that such an offer will give them access to potential overseas students, specially at a time when British universities are chasing foreign students to raise funds.

The universities will bear the cost of the courses and living expenses for five winners of the competition, sponsored by Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, chief of the Indian telecom major Bharti Airtel.

Thousands of hopefuls have already registered for auditions for the show. Once selected, the aspirants have to pass weekly tasks designed to test their suitability and their performance in taped interviews with the head of the university departments, participating in the show.

On offer will be places to study engineering at Warwick, biomedical sciences at Sheffield, computer science at Middlesex, journalism and media at Warwick and management at Leeds University Business School.

A Warwick University spokesman said it was providing tuition fees for a four year course of around 50,000 pounds plus a scholarship for living costs of around 30,000 pounds. ''India is a major market for us,'' he said.

UNI