shock out of paying for college, say parents who have used the plan.

Chartered accountant Mr. Richard Butterfield enrolled his son Mark in the Canadian Scholarship Trust Plan back in 1960, when he was living in Toronto.

Since then, the plan has been brought to Bermuda and Scholarship Advisors International has substituted the Heritage International Scholarship Trust Plan, based on US dollars.

"My son was one of the first enrolled,'' Mr. Butterfield said. "When it came time to go to college,'' the plan's savings were put toward the first year, and "he got funding from the plan for the second, third, and fourth years of his first degree.'' Not all the costs of sending Mark to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire were covered, but the contribution was "substantial,'' he said.

And "they were payments that I could certainly afford on a monthly basis,'' he said. "If I hadn't put the money into the plan, I would have probably spent it on a beer and a hot dog.

"It seems to me that it's an excellent plan, which really benefits everybody.'' Mr. Butterfield heard about the plan from Mr. Kenneth Carter, who was his senior partner at the time. Upon returning to Bermuda in 1963, Mr. Butterfield tried unsuccessfully to persuade Government to introduce the plan on the Island by matching contributions of the parent or guardian.

It was not until 1969 that Mr. Charles Jeffers opened an agency to sell scholarship plans on the Island.

As well as providing funds for college, participation in the plan had an important psychological effect, Mr. Butterfield said. "Everybody around the child at that point has it in mind that the child is going to go to university.

"There is a whole sort of culture which gets introduced into the home and family and the child's mind,'' creating "motivation,'' he said.

While it was possible other investments would yield larger returns, "you would have a greater risk,'' Mr. Butterfield said. "This is sort of guaranteed.'' Today, Mark is about to qualify as a doctor in Dublin. In about five years, Mr. Butterfield hopes Mark and his wife will return to Bermuda to work.

Mr. Dudley Burchell, father of former ZBM journalist Mr. Dave Burchell, said he enrolled his son in the plan at an early age and it helped cover the cost of attending Emerson College in Boston.

"I would recommend it,'' Mr. Burchell said.

Today, his son works for WKRC in Cincinnati. "He's doing very well.'' Mr. Graham Smith enrolled his sons Geoffrey, 6, and Marc, 2, when they were born. He contributes about $1,300 a year toward a post-secondary education for each of them.

"It seemed like a fairly sensible and prudent thing to do,'' Mr. Smith said.

"It's really a form of forced savings.'' Both he and his wife attended college, and they knew how expensive it could be, he said. "Heritage explained to us, down the road, based upon present inflation, what the cost could be,'' he said.

"When they put those numbers to you, it's kind of scary.'' Mr. Richard Butterfield.

MR. CHARLES JEFFERS -- Opened agency in 1969.