Spotting an opportunity at university, and having the commitment and talent to see it through, is making Lizzie Fane (DH 2004) a name to remember.

It’s a common complaint among employers that graduates leave university with a shed-load of debt and not much else. Not Lizzie Fane, whose experiences studying Modern Languages led to the creation of her brainchild ThirdYearAbroad.com: a website designed to help the large number of students who spend part of their degree course abroad. The revenue model is based on a complementary product range developed to solve these students’ key problems – the first, YearAbroadInsurance.com, was created in collaboration with insurance broker company RMCI and international insurers QBE, and launched last summer. There’s a line of further projects in the pipeline, the latest of which is the development of a jobs board. Lizzie is passionate about helping as many students as possible take up the opportunity to study and learn languages outside the UK. Her ambition is to make ThirdYearAbroad an influential platform which will “push the UK to accept the importance of Modern Languages”.