THE CHILDREN'S University will go ahead this year after fears it could be axed because of a funding shortfall.

But the two-week summer school for young people which has attracted 6,000 youngsters since it was started three years ago will be drastically scaled down, with just a sixth of the courses on offer compared with the numbers last year.

The Government's New Opportunities Fund cash worth £40,000 a year for three years has come to an end and Swindon Council has scaled back its grant, which was £45,000 in 2001 and £25,000 last year.

The university manager, Rob Crow, said: "The Children's University has proved enormously popular and we are disappointed that we have had to restrict the scope and availability of the Summer CU Programme this year.

"We plan to explore other funding avenues and if we are successful, we would hope to run more extensive programmes in future years."

Mr Crow revealed that this year's CU was roughly a sixth of the size of those in previous years.

The programme is based at New College, in Park North, and this year it will be run between July 28 and August 8.

On offer will be two hours of activities a day, from 10am to noon, compared with the six-hour days over three weeks last year. In previous years it gave youngsters the chance to try their hand at dozens of activities, from martial arts to sailing and circus skills. This year it was only open to children in school years five and six (aged nine to 11) from a dozen targeted schools near Swindon town centre.

This year some new activities will be featured, such as Food, Glorious Food, thanks to a grant received from the Local Food Initiative as part of Swindon Council's Agenda 21 development programme.

Other sessions will include foreign languages and workshops with Swindon Heritage and the Sixth Sense Theatre Company.

Much of the funding for this year's programme comes from the Government's Children's Fund.

Tory councillor Garry Perkins (Shaw and Nine Elms), who is the lead member for education, said he would support the effort to bring more funding for the summer school but that the education budget was already stretched.

"I will support anything which brings money into education but our budget is tight as we want to get the maximum amount into schools," he said.