BLACKBURN – A British Muslim undergraduate neuroscience student has had a research article published in a respected international academic journal, achieving huge success at a young age.

“To see my work published in such a prestigious journal while I was still an undergraduate student is a fantastic reward and motivates me to excel to my full potential,” University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) graduate Farheen Rokad, from Blackburn, told Lancashire Telegraph.

Rokad, 22, was named as the lead author on a piece of research published in the Journal for Alzheimer’s Disease.

The Blackburn College pupil collaborated with three universities, Florida, Cardiff and Birmingham, on research into brain tissue damage and its impact on gum disease during an internship at UCLan’s school of dentistry.

Supervising Rokad in her internship, Dr Sim Singhrao, a senior research fellow with a special interest in understanding how gum disease becomes a risk factor for Alzheimers disease, praised the young Muslim’s achievement.

“This sets Farheen onto an excellent start, either for postgraduate research or in finding employment,” she said.

The former Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School, one of the most successful schools in the UK, was one of more than 4,000 students to graduate this week.

According to The Guardian, there are around 140 Muslim faith schools in the UK, twelve of them being state-funded. These schools regularly outperform those of other faiths.

For example, The Telegraph reported in 2008 that 86.5 per cent of pupils attending Muslim schools achieved five GCSEs, compared to a figure of only 72.8 per cent of Roman Catholic schools and 64.5 per cent of secular schools.

According to the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), Tauheedul Islam Girls’ High School in Blackburn was ranked first in 2016 in the Government’s new Progress 8 league table, with Tauheedul Islam Boys’ High School coming in second place.