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Oxford Brookes chancellor Helena Kennedy QC, soon to be investigating the key issue of broadening participation in further education, has passed on some top tips she once received on how to study and make ends meet.

Young Ms Kennedy, who at the time was struggling for funds to continue her law studies, was so desperate she wrote to her MP for advice. "My MP said to get in touch with the minister for education, who was a lady familiar to us all," Ms Kennedy recalled at the launch of the National Commission on Education's recent report on post-16 provision.

The reply said that the minister had also been through this. She suggested writing for one of the daily newspapers - as a struggling student, the minister said she had had a little column in the Daily Express. "I knew people who were trying to break into journalism who had trouble getting a column on the Daily Express," said Ms Kennedy. "She also failed to mention she was married to a millionaire."