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A partnership with the Indigenous Martu community in remote WA, and an online game targeting young people's financial skills were some of the projects that won a team of students from The University of Western Australia a trip to Berlin in October to compete on the international stage.

The Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team, based at UWA's Business School, were recently declared national champions in Sydney, from an original field of 20 universities and finalists from the University of Melbourne, Bond University and the University of New England.

SIFE is an annual international competition that rewards university teams for creating and implementing projects that positively impact the community. The Australian program is sponsored by major companies including Qantas, Cadbury and KPMG.

As the 2009 Qantas SIFE Australia Champions, the UWA team will compete against 40 other champion teams at the SIFE World Cup.

The team's projects impressed the 36 Australian judges by meeting all the SIFE criteria: market economics, financial literacy, business ethics, entrepreneurship, environmental sustainability, competitive success skills, and team sustainability.

Last year's SIFE UWA team was also the national winner, competing in the World Cup in Singapore, where it reached the semi-finals, to be ranked in the world's top 16.

"The continued success of SIFE UWA shows that our University produces students who can make a practical and meaningful contribution to the community, even before graduating," said SIFE UWA President, Law/Industrial Relations student Hayden Teo.

Media references

Hayden Teo (SIFE UWA President) (+61 4) 19 197 936
Heather Merritt (UWA Business School) (+61 8) 6488 8171 / (+61 4) 19 950 027
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs) (+61 8) 6488 5563 / (+61 4) 32 637 716