STUDENT Tim Lucas carried off two awards at a postgraduate prize-giving event.

His achievement is testimony to eight years of dedicated study, after leaving school before A-levels.

Educated at Malvern's Chase High School, Mr Lucas joined the Defence Research Agency's apprenticeship program.

Based in Malvern, he gained a higher national certificate in electronic engineering after at the four-year part-time course at Worcester College of Technology.

He then spent four years as a field engineer, firstly for Malvern's Serco Systems - a contractor to the Defence Research Agency, now called QinetiQ - and later with a similar London company.

He then went back into education full-time with a place on degree course in computer networks for business at the University of Central England (UCE), Birmingham.

His abilities were soon recognised and led to him being sponsored by Cisco Systems in his third year, at the end of which he gained a first-class honours degree. After going back to Malvern to work for QinetiQ, Mr Lucas was hired by the university hired to work on its computer.

Mid-2002 he joined the libraries and IT department and started a part-time master's degree in data communications and graduated with distinction in 2006.

Mr Lucas said: "The content and structure of the course was ideal for me.

"It incorporated modular Cisco material, which I could apply directly in my work. The excellent support facilities were also a great attraction when selecting an appropriate university for my master's degree."

At the recent graduation prize-giving ceremony, the 34-year-old's achievements not only won him the postgraduate computer networking and software prize, but also department's top overall postgraduate award because of the exceptional standard of his work.