Star graduates give poor students degree of hope

SOME of Scotland's best known writers and leading business people are using their personal fortunes to fund university places for students from less affluent backgrounds.

Ian Rankin and Alexander McCall Smith are among those helping to ensure that academically gifted school-leavers secure degrees at their alma mater, Edinburgh University.

The institution aims to spend £35m on Harvard-style scholarships, giving one in every four undergraduates financial help during their studies.

The fund will account for a 10th of the £350m that the university intends to generate in a fundraising effort that will be officially unveiled on Friday.

The university hopes to boost its prominence as a world-class academic institution.

A recent poll of the top 100 universities in the world ranked Edinburgh as 47th, one of only six UK establishments in the top 50.

If successful, the scholarship plan will double to 1,200 the number of student maintenance awards currently available giving Edinburgh the highest proportion of scholarship students in Britain.

Rankin, McCall Smith and the broadcaster Sheena Macdonald, who has also donated money to the campaign, are among those interviewed for a short film to be shown at the launch event.

Rankin, who read English at Edinburgh, said: "Growing up in Cardenden in Fife I couldn't find any like-minded souls that were interested in literature and writing. But when I arrived in Edinburgh there were societies that did this and it was a very big thing for me. I got to know well-known writers. The poet Ron Butlin was a young guy at the time but he was successful and I could have a chat with him over a pint."

Rankin wrote his first three books while studying for a PhD - which he never completed - at the university.

He added: "We have been a bit slow at this kind of fundraising in Britain but Edinburgh is trying terribly hard to let former students know what is going on. Without the university I could not have got published so quickly. I think it's important that if you get anything at all from a university that has helped you then, if you can afford to, you should give something back."

Edinburgh recruited Young Dawkins as its first professional fundraiser last June.

The university's principal, Timothy O'Shea, says it is already almost halfway towards the total.

"It is a big target but we have raised £150m so far so we are well on the way to making this plan a reality. We want to emulate Harvard by ensuring that scholarships widen access and ensure we get the best students from all around the world. I want Scottish students to come here but we are an international university and I also want Americans and other nationalities to be thinking of applying here at the same time as they are applying to the likes of Harvard or Stanford."

Scottish businesspeople have been especially generous. O'Shea said: "The university has a lot of friends who did well after they left here and they feel a real affinity with the place. They share our aspiration of making it an even better place to study."

Alan McFarlane, the former managing director of Walter Scott and Partners Ltd, Scotland's largest independent investment house until it was sold for £300m earlier this year, is funding 25 scholarships.

McFarlane, 50, who grew up in a council house and was the first in his family to go to university, said: "I want to help students who have got the ability but struggle with the finances. I was fortunate to have a grant but it is much tougher nowadays. I would be disappointed if that put people off applying to Edinburgh because it is a wonderful institution that did a lot for me. I want others, from similar backgrounds as mine, to have the same opportunity."

Edinburgh's plans were supported by other Scottish universities last night.

Dr Brian Lang, principal at St Andrews, said: "We wish Edinburgh well. A strong Edinburgh University means a strong St Andrews and a strong Scotland. It is important that Scotland's top universities strive to promote and widen access to ensure the best this country has to offer in a university education is accessible and available to the most talented students, regardless of social or economic circumstance."

A Glasgow University spokesman added: "We have attracted recent support for scholarships at both undergraduate and postgraduate level which are all aimed at providing access and opportunity for talented individuals. Earlier this year, Glasgow announced the Adam Smith and Kelvin Fellowships; 12 awards made possible by the generous gifts of donors, and designed to attract the most talented scholars, worldwide."

Lord's cash helps sums to add up for Ashley

ASHLEY Muir is proud, and extremely grateful, to be studying maths at Edinburgh University.

The 20-year-old, pictured left with friends, is now in her third year, but she might not even be studying for a degree if it wasn't for the scholarship she has benefited from.

Educated at Broughton High School in the capital, Muir gained four As and a B in her Highers.

But living at home with her parents and three brothers in a two-bedroom flat in the city's Granton area, she thought that it would be a struggle to find any space to study.

However, an annual £2,500 payment funded by the late Lord Trotman, the former chairman of ICI who was schooled at Boroughmuir School in Edinburgh, has given Muir her independence.

She said: "I applied for King's College in London, St Andrews and Edinburgh, but I always wanted to study here.

"The scholarship has made all the difference. It allowed me to move into a flat in Calton Hill with my friend, which I could never have afforded otherwise. It also helps with the basics, such as books, bus passes and food, which you can't survive without."

The cash is split between a £1,500 payment at the start of term in September and a £1,000 payment at Christmas.

"I just enjoy being a student now," Muir added. "Lord Trotman wanted to help students stay in Edinburgh and that is exactly what he has done for me.

"I am fortunate because people maybe think university is out of their reach because they cannot afford it any more. What Edinburgh is doing is trying to remove that problem, and I think that's great.

"I don't know what I want to do careerwise yet but my degree will give me much better opportunities than I would otherwise have had."