STUDENT volunteers who have been refused £70,000 of funding have said that they fear vital community projects could suffer.

Members of student-run organisation Oxford Hub have said they have not received core funding from the University of Oxford this year, which makes up 40 per cent of its budget.

Manager Lucie Coussmaker, of East Oxford, said the group needs £170,000 so 600 volunteers can spend 47,000 hours working across the city each year.

She added: “It’s going to be such a shame because if the funding can’t be found, projects are going to have to stop running which is going to have an impact on the community as well as the student population. We can’t operate in the way we have done.”

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Oxford Hub, which is based above Turl Street Kitchen, launched in 2007 and runs more than 50 community projects. This includes Branch Up, which holds activity days for for 22 youngsters referred by social services, and Cowley-based charity Oxfordshire Young Carers.

Students have also worked on an English project with youngsters at Oxford Spires Academy, while its Schools Plus scheme saw 300 students tutoring in primary and secondary schools last year.

Miss Coussmaker, 24, said the group has received funding from university budgets since 2009/10. The university gave it core funding for three years, which ran out last September.

She claimed the university said it would support Oxford Hub in finding cash from alternate academic budgets.

Despite talks with staff, the group has not been offered any other financial support, according to Miss Coussmaker.

She said: “They have not directed us to a place where we can get our money.”

Students have now launched a petition, which has more than 1,400 signatures, to try to rally support for longterm university funding.

University of Oxford spokesman Matt Pickles said: “The OxHub is a great venture which we were happy to support as it got off the ground.

“We also have to prioritise other areas of student support which have recently been subject to significant funding cuts. We have stressed that there is now an opportunity for them to work closely with other areas, including the Careers Service and Oxford University Students’ Union, to identify how a collaborative approach might reduce costs, particularly where there is a degree of overlap in services.”