Glasgow University has created a Pounds 1.5 million bonanza for postgraduates by pooling an array of benefactions and endowments.
The university will mark its 550th anniversary in 2001 by launching 100 new three-year research scholarships to attract top postgraduates, a 30 per cent increase over its annual intake of home postgraduates.
The first scholarships will be available to students starting research this October, in disciplines across the university. The package will typically be worth more than Pounds 9,000 a year, including a combination of some or all of tuition fees, living expenses, laptop computer and software, and en suite accommodation.
A recent law graduate has been sifting through the terms of various benefactions that have been left unused because, for example, nobody from the Western Isles had applied to study veterinary medicine.
Glasgow's principal, Sir Graeme Davies, said it had been "slightly easier" than expected to change the terms to fit the new scheme.
"We had never looked at it very deeply before. In many cases, although the endowment was made in the name of an individual, the trust duty was commonly given to the court of the university. So we only had to ask ourselves to change it," said Sir Graeme.
In about dozen cases, Glasgow will have to go to the Court of Session for permission to change the terms. But Sir Graeme said circumstances had often changed since "perfectly logical" conditions had been set in previous decades.