An Oxford University college is to introduce a postgraduate scholarship for Israeli students in what has been hailed as the first of its kind.

Exeter College will award the place to a masters or doctoral student from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, with priority given to women, minorities or a person from a disadvantaged background.

The scholarship has been named for Professor Rivka Carmi, the medical scientist who is president of Ben-Gurion.

Professor Raymond Dwek, an emeritus fellow of Exeter, who helped to create the scholarship, noted that Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion had dreamed of "a Hebrew Oxford in the Negev".

The Rivka Carmi scholarships would "broaden the horizons of BGU students through the one-of-a-kind relationship with this exceptional educational institute," he said.

He and Professor Carmi co-chair the British-Israel Life Sciences Council, which fosters academic exchange between the two countries.

Professor Carmi felt "honoured and humbled" by the initiative. She hoped that it would open "new opportunities for collaborations between the two institutes".