Kelly Rowland, the singer and former member of Destiny’s Child, performed for an audience of award winning students in London last night.

The first Xcel Student of the Year Awards recognised the achievements of students from all backgrounds across the country. Miss Rowland made a special appearance at the ceremony to sing for guests.

The award ceremony, presided over by former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq, was the first time student achievement has been recognised at a dedicated national event. It was run by Xcel, the magazine dedicated to widening participation in UK universities.

The overall Student of the Year award went to Alexander Rose from the University of Arts who set up the STOP campaign against knife crime after losing five of his friends in violent attacks.

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There were 15 other prizes recognising student talent in law, science, the arts, computing, sports and humanities.

Helen Wells, 45, won Student of Courage award sponsored by The Times. She couldn’t read or write until she was 23 and worked through a series of family traumas including her brother’s murder and domestic violence, to complete a B-Tech in social care and an NVQ in promoting independence.

A mother of three and grandmother of one, she is now set to gain a 2:1 degree from Huddersfield University in Community Health on graduation in 2009 and already works part-time at Lifeline as an alcoholics support worker.

She said she hoped the award would encourage other mature students. “Everything negative that has happened in my life I have turned it into something positive. I have fallen down but there’s nothing wrong with falling down but you have to get back up again.”

Other winners included Zimbabwean refugee Josephine Gabi winner of the Education Student award from Manchester Metropolitan University and Mohamed Zahras Dawahir from Sri Lanka who lost his family in the Boxing Day Tsunami and raised the money to continue studying in the UK at the University of Leicester. Last night he won the award for Engineering and Technology.

Richard Barnes, Deputy Mayor of London, who presented the award for Science Student of the Year, said the awards were a brilliant initiative. “Some of these young people come from challenging backgrounds but that doesn’t mean that they have to fall through the net…Too often you read about failures but here we are celebrating success.”

Shailesh Naik, chief executive of Student Recruitment Media the group behind the awards said they recognised students all backgrounds who have excelled.

The awards were the brainchild of Sylvano Clarke and Andre Dixon at SR Media. Mr Dixon said: “It’s a celebration of student achievement, it’s telling students that anyone can do it. You focus, and you put in a lot of work and you can achieve anything you want to.”

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