A GROUP of students are celebrating after raising £250,000 to help bright young people from poor backgrounds get degrees.

The record amount was raised at Newcastle University's sixth annual Phonathon appeal, when students phoned graduates, many of them now in high earning jobs, and invited them to make donations to the Alumni Fund.

Most of the fund will be devided up into £2,000 grants or bursaries for students from local schools and colleges who are accepted on to a course at the university but need financial support.

The phones were manned by 24 students each evening for eight weeks and at the height of the Phonathon £21,000 was raised in one short session.

Phonathon organiser Joanna Stewart said: "It's a fabulous achievement to make a quarter of a million pounds and a credit to the generosity of our former students and the communication skills of our student callers."

Victoria Smith, a geography student who has previously received a bursary from the Alumni fund, said: "The Alumni Bursary alleviated concerns I had about financing myself during my course.

"It made a real difference knowing that former students, who knew what it was like to finance a degree, were helping me."