Fundraising campaigns launched around the region seeking support from alumni as budgets hit by squeeze

John Roberts Education Correspondent

YORKSHIRE universities are turning to their former students for cash to help them “bridge the gap” between the cost of providing higher education and the shrinking budgets they receive from Government.

Fundraising campaigns are being launched around the region to allow universities to ask alumni for their support as they look to become less reliant on the state.

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Graduates are being asked to donate to help provide scholarships, student placements and new building developments, but universities have warned that gifts cannot replace Government funding.

Bradford and Leeds Metropolitan University have both launched new funds to allow graduates to donate to their former universities while Sheffield University is asking its alumni to support the redevelopment of its students union building.

Leeds University has seen its number of graduate donors increase 10-fold since it created an annual fund five years ago and is now looking to expand it further. Sheffield University raises 250,000 a year through alumni donations compared with just 100 eight years ago.

The university’s director of development in the alumni office Miles Stevenson said: “Universities have been doing this for 20 years but there has been a big increase in the last five years because resources from Government are declining in real terms.”

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Staff at Leeds Met wrote to former graduates last week to promote a new annual fund.

The letter said: “We believe everyone who wants it should have the chance to learn, no matter what their background or financial circumstances are. To help the university has set up the Annual Fund.

“The Annual Fund helps bridge the gap between the real cost of an excellent education and the existing funding sources. It relies solely on the generosity of alumni.”

Bradford University is to launch a “Braduate fund” this month for former graduates to support.

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Vice chancellor Prof Mark Cleary said: “I know from speaking to former students that they enjoyed their time at Bradford and that higher education has had a big effect on them, their careers and their life chances.

“By launching the Braduate Fund we hope that our alumni will donate funds to allow us to help students fulfil wider educational, social, and cultural aspirations. We also intend to raise money for scholarships, to allow talented individuals who would otherwise not be able to attend university benefit from a Bradford University education.”

The university is also looking to raise money from former students toward a Hardship Fund.

Leeds University has seen the number of graduates supporting them through an annual fund rise from 500 in 2004 to 5,000 last year. In total more than 1.7m has been donated. The majority is raised through telephone calls with each “call campaign” seeing students spending 3,000 hours on the phone speaking to more than 10,000 alumni.

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The annual fund pays for a range of scholarships, including 125 places for students from challenging financial backgrounds and the first-ever Olympic scholarship, which was awarded to Yorkshire’s world champion triathlete Alistair Brownlee.

It also supports the Leeds for Life foundation which pays for students to take part in projects which support their local community along with communities around the world .

Leeds University’s development director Michelle Calvert said: “Our donations come from across the age range from 21 upwards. We are establishing a worldwide Leeds community and we want to make sure our alumni are more involved in the life of the university.”

She told the Yorkshire Post that approaching former graduates for support was becoming more commonplace across universities in the UK.

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York St John University has recently carried out its first ever phone campaign to ask graduates for support for a scholarship programme.

Hull University has had an annual fund since 2000 and now has around 3,000 donors who give around 500,000 a year while York University’s annual fund raised 106,000 last year.