THERE are funds not found in government plans for higher education. Student unions do not advertise many, and few people know much about them. But somewhere, at a university near you, there could be one with your name on it.

Cash-starved students can benefit from a wealth of trust funds, bursaries and scholarships buried in obscure places with strange conditions attached. Leverhulme Trust’s Trade Charities Trust gives money to students who are “the son or daughter, spouse, widow or widower of a commercial traveller, chemist or grocer”.

The trust says that its award of up to £3,000 a year is only “modest” — but it is worth a small fortune to a student — the equivalent of a student loan. Set up by a bequest from Viscount Leverhulme in the 1920s, the trust is one of a vast network of pots of gold in higher education. It is one of the more peculiar funds on offer. Most are geared to more conventional purposes — hardship funds for those in desperate financial need, or prizes and scholarships for outstanding academic achievements.

Travel grants are an area of particularly rich pickings, with awards for any part of the world that is of interest. Students at Manchester University can compete for the Pawel Koprowski Memorial vacation awards, which provide £600 for a holiday spent outside the UK or Ireland for longer than a month.

Old-fashioned awards are likely to exist at older universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge. But it is not always the case. The University of Birmingham spends about £5 million a year on awards for tuition fees and maintenance, funded through supported scholarships and university initiatives.

Thames Valley University gives about £350,000 a year in scholarships, bursaries and trusts. Andrew Ward, director of corporate affairs at Thames Valley, says: “We have some benefactors who give money each year to students. It doesn’t really compete, however, with the other universities’ big endowments.”

Trusts usually promote their awards through universities. A spokesman for the Leverhulme Trust says: “We have our website, a guide for applicants, and we send posters to universities.”