US university tuitions have dramatically increased in the past five years leaving many college graduates thousands of dollars in debt. Other countries around the world are not far behind, with 2006 reports indicating education costs rising 6.5 percent from 2003-4 in the UK and 3.2 percent in Canada. As students struggle to make ends meet by combining income from multiple jobs with scholarships and loans, others are turning to creative alternatives to pay for a higher education.

Meet Mike, aka. Ogulak Da Basher, an 17-year-old from Durango, Colorado who has accumulated enough funds playing inside an online virtual gaming community, Entropia Universe, to pay for his siblings’ college tuitions. “I began playing Entropia as a form of entertainment with my mother; however after 3 years of fostering relationships, building businesses, and developing my hunting and mining skills, I have raked in over ?35,000, ?12,000 of which will go towards helping my brother and sister attend college.”