UCC students deserve congratulations after what is set to go down as the most successful Rag Week ever in the college. In excess of £10,000 is likely to have been raised through last week's activities, which saw 300 people turned away from the first night's disco in Jury's Hotel and a sell out Tramps Ball last Wednesday.

In fact, over £7,000 had already been raised before the week even started. In the course of a single day of collections, students showed an ability to extract money from even the tightest of wallets.

One female collector sold her phone number for £5, assuming of course that it was her phone number and not the number for Fota Wildlife Park, or the Samaritans. Equal ingenuity was shown by the collectors who were confronted with a punter who claimed to have no change. They invited him to jump up and down to prove it. Cue jangling of coins and suitably generous contribution from shame faced punter.

Among the charities to benefit from all these student exertions are the "Make A Wish" Foundation, the ISPCC's Childline and the local Lavanagh Centre in Cork, which provides education and support for handicapped children. "Without a doubt, it has all the signs of being the most successful Rag Week ever held in UCC," says Rag Week organiser Ben Keane.