A FUND to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds get places at the University of Huddersfield has topped £1m.

The innovative scheme to raise cash for scholarships to the university has proved to be TEN TIMES more successful than originally planned.

And that has delighted the University’s Vice Chancellor Bob Cryan.

He himself set up the scheme, pledging £10,000 of his own money to help, and attracted a lot of support from other staff members.

It was also backed by entrepreneur Graham Leslie, who offered match-funding to the scheme.

Prof Cryan studied at the university when it was a polytechnic and was brought up in modest circumstances in Deighton.

The Student Scholarship Fund now stands at more than £1 million. The original goal was £100,000 and the first money will be distributed in 2012.

University officials will meet in the next few weeks to decide how best to use the money, either as bursaries or grants.

The Student Scholarship Fund was launched in July. Prof Cryan devised a method of ensuring that every donation of £1 to the fund was transformed into a gift of £10, using a combination of the tax advantages gained from making donations through the system known as Gift Aid, and using two matched-funding schemes.

When a £1 donation was made, he personally matched it, making £2. Gift Aid turned this to £2.50 and the Higher Education Funding Council for England matched this, so £1 had grown to £5.

This sum then attracted matching funding from the Government’s National Scholarship Programme – making £10.

The original goal was to build up a fund of over £100,000, meaning that Prof Cryan’s personal contribution – matching those made by other donors – would be £10,000.

But the response to the appeal was so enthusiastic that the Vice-Chancellor’s pot of £10,000 was quickly emptied.

At this point, local entrepreneur and philanthropist Graham Leslie – the founder of pharmaceutical firm Galpharm – stepped in.

Mr Leslie sold Galpharm to the health company Perrigo for $88m.

He said: “I have been involved with the university for four years now, supporting them in the business school and through mentoring. It is all about giving something back to the community.”

Prof Cryan said: “Thanks to his amazing generosity, we were able to keep the scheme open, as Graham agreed to continue to personally match any further donations.

“During graduation ceremonies, our Students’ Union worked extremely hard to raise further funds and Kirklees Council also agreed to support the fund.

“As a result, the Student Scholarship Fund now stands at more than £1m.”

The cash will be used to provide scholarships and bursaries to University of Huddersfield students from disadvantaged backgrounds who might otherwise be deterred by the new fees that come into play from 2012.

The university has declared that it will not seek to profit from students and is levying one of the country’s fairest fees, at £7,950.

Prof Cryan added: “I would like to thank everyone who donated money to the Fund. I was overwhelmed by their response.

“This has demonstrated what a great sense of pride we all have in our university, and I believe it also shows that we are determined to continue to offer a top-class education to all who can benefit, no matter what challenges the new higher education landscape throws at us,” he said.

A separate scholarship fund set up jointly by the University and Kirklees Council has raised another £150,000 to help fund students.