BIG INTERVIEW: Volunteers can change lives - John Ramsay, actingchief executive, Student Volunteering UK

But he seems genuinely enthused by the way that community need and enlightened self-interest are coming together in the burgeoning involvement of students in their communities.

He says: "I look at some of the opportunities around for volunteering now and I'm so jealous. I think, why wasn't that kind of thing available when I was at college?"

Levels of informal volunteering activity are notoriously difficult to measure. But Student Volunteering UK believes there has been a major upswing in recent years. There remain problems of information flow about opportunities and of perceptions between students and mainstream volunteering organisations.

If volunteering groups can understand how to make their pitch to students, and students can gain an understanding of how the community and voluntary sector operates, then everyone benefits.