By Maggie Hartford Electronic parts supplier Electrocomponents is to sponsor a new projects office being set up by the Said Business School at Oxford University.

The funding from the Cowley-based company, the UK's largest distributor of electronic parts, will allow students to find placements with companies who give them a project to complete.

Electrocomponents, based at the Oxford Business Park, is a major corporate partner of the school. It was founded in 1937 by two Hungarian Jewish emigrs. In 1998 it moved its international management centre from Corby, Northamptonshire, to Cowley, where it employs more than 200. It joined the FTSE 100 London shares index in September and has outperformed its sector by six per cent this year.

The firm specialises in supplying small orders averaging 80, and takes 20,000 calls a day in Britain from engineers and technicians needing parts for repairs.

Chief executive Robert Lawson said: "Our future depends on being able to attract, develop and retain the brightest people to meet our vision of worldwide leadership in our chosen field."

He added: "We believe that the unique teaching style of SBS will produce graduates of the highest quality.

"Our experience with the University of Oxford under- graduate and MBA students has produced positive and valuable pro- jects for the company."

The MBA students spend two months in the summer working on live projects for small hi-tech and innovation companies as well as larger concerns, including Ox- ford Instruments, Barclays, Benetton, Ford, IBM, Powderject and Shell.