ashu maarasinghe, when he was studying in colombo university did the same thing. there was scholar ship for doctorate offered by Japan. Usually university administration give the notices to the student council president to publish in university notice board. ashu after receipt that kept the notice without publishing and prepare his application. he published one day to the deadline and no body could apply and ashu applied and got the opportunity. this is not a false story just check with the ashus batchmates.