Chris, from Moreton Morrell, was a student at Warwick School leaving in 2002. He then went to Loughborough University, and graduated in 2007 with a 2:1 in Management Sciences.

Along with his university friends Alastair Lindsay, Oliver Sidwell and Ben Smith, Chris has out-performed hundreds of young business hopefuls to reach the national top 20 shortlist in the new HSBC Unipreneur Awards.

Their website www.ratemyplacement.co.uk is designed by students, for students.

Aimed at students who undertake internships and work placements, the website allows them to rate and review their experiences.

These reviews then become an invaluable source of information for prospective placement/internship students. The website also offers advice and a blog where students, universities and employers can interact with one another.

Chris said: “We all undertook work placements in 2005/2006. As we evaluated our own experiences on placement, we felt that there was a significant information gap when it came to knowing what students could really expect from the placement and internship opportunities that exist.

“The internet is the perfect medium by which students can share and exchange information and we feel that RateMyPlacement fills this information gap.

“Since the launch of the website, we have received almost 20,000 unique visitors and over 200,000 webpage views.”

Now, their entry will be considered by a panel of local business experts who will select 10 top new businesses to go through to the national judging session.

The government-backed awards, sponsored by HSBC Bank and presented in association with the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE), follows a recent study that suggests there could be as many as 80,000 students running a campus-born business – with some already on the way to their first million.

Afterwards, an audience of 200 guests drawn from the worlds of business, government and the media will vote for the candidate who has impressed the most and who will be crowned the HSBC Unipreneur 2008.

l Two students from Coventry who created the UK’s first and only national taxi booking service, have been named as semi-finalists in the new HSBC Unipreneurs Awards.

Alan and David Garrec started 118 TAXI over a year ago. A user simply has to dial 118 8294, that’s 118 followed by the numbers that spell out TAXI on a telephone’s keypad, and an operator will put the user through to their nearest taxi or private hire company. Users can rest assured that their taxi or private hire vehicle is fully licensed.

With nearly 20,000 private hire and taxi companies on their database 118 TAXI has access to over 99 per cent of taxis and cabs in the UK.

The overall winner will be decided at a gala evening at BAFTA on April 23, when five finalists will be quizzed live on-stage by a panel of experts about their business and why they deserve the first prize of £20,000.