A Scottish university principal is putting her creative talents to good use by selling her artwork to raise funds for student bursaries.

Petra Wend, principal of Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, has already raised over pound;2,000 from sales of cards showing her paintings of the university campus through the seasons.

All proceeds go directly to the Vice Chancellor’s Fund, which was set up to broaden students’ horizons. It aims to enable students, who could not otherwise afford to do so, to study abroad. They have already funded two bursaries - one for a student to work in an orphanage in Uganda, and another for a student placement in speech sciences in Latin America.

Professor Wend said: “Going abroad costs money and I wanted to make sure that lack of finance did not prevent students from taking part in a programme abroad that helped their degree.”

The principal, who moved to QMU in September 2009, has long been a passionate painter and funded part of her own languages degree through selling commissioned portraits.

www.qmu.ac.ukQMU merchandisegiftsCards.htm

julia.belgutay@tes.co.uk.