Funding madness

I read with incredulity the caption accompanying the photo of Wendy Miller and her children ("Rebel MPs steadfast against variable fees", THES , December 19/26). Miller will, along with 36 other students, receive £1,000 a year for 40 hours of voluntary community work. I am disgusted that a mature student with six children should be expected to do anything other than study and bring up her family.

A society in which there is not adequate funding for that is surely a society gone mad.

Hilary Walker
Oxford