AUTHOR Philip Pullman has criticised university fees after helping to pay for a student to study at Oxford University.

Graduate Emily-Rose Eastop raised £26,000 from 485 sponsors in six weeks after a crowdfunding appeal to pay for her tuition and living costs for an MSc.

Mr Pullman, who lives in Cumnor, gave to Miss Eastop, who will soon begin an postgraduate degree in cognitive and evolutionary anthropology at Wadham College.

The His Dark Materials writer, who studied English literature at Exeter College in the 1960s, said: “She wrote an interesting letter and I decided to give.

“I don’t give to everybody who asks, but she made a good case.

“Some people have got money for university and other people haven’t.

“It’s an unjust system – when I went to university we didn’t have to pay at all.

“Now people can’t go at all unless they can acquire some money.

“I don’t think students should have to pay. It should be free.

“It’s absurd and criminal where everything’s got to make money. Everything is being privatised and monetised.

“It’s a dreadful system and a deplorable way to run the country. I’m against it in any way possible.”

Miss Eastop turned to crowdfunding, asking people for money through specialised websites, to raise the cash.

The 26-year-old from South Woodford, London, said of Mr Pullman’s donation: “It wasn’t crazy but it wasn’t a token amount either.

“It was generous.”

The Magdalen College graduate criticised the lack of funding for postgraduate students: “I did apply for a grant but didn’t get one.

“They said they had nine times as many applicants than they could fund.

“Crowdfunding was simply a way of putting out feelers to see whether people might like to help me out. Infinitely better than padding loan companies’ purses, I’d say.”

The average tutition cost of a full-time postgraduate taught course is just less than £6,000 a year, whileaccording to Complete University Guide, typical fees at Oxford University are £8,935.

Fellow postgrad Rachael Owhin raised £10,000 in eight days for her migration studies course at Wolfson College.

The 23-year-old said: “There’s not enough funding for people from poorer backgrounds.

“Crowdfunding is definitely something more people are going to use to fund their education.”

Speaking about why people donate, the Londoner said: “Everyone can identify with struggle. A lot of people have had times in their lives where they have not have had what they’ve needed.”

Both of the students raised their money through crowdfunding website Hubbub.

The site’s founder Duncan Knox said: “There are hundreds of these projects out there and most of them fail. It takes someone really special to make it work.

“As a result of that we have had a lot of people – almost 20 – come to us wanting to do similar things.”

Oxford University spokes-man Matt Pickles said: “Fundraising for postgraduate scholarships is one of the university’s key priorities and this year over 1,000 fully-funded scholarships were available from the university for new master’s and doctoral students.”

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