Universities are employing some of Britain's best-known authors to teach creative writing to an unprecedented number of students. Lucrative book deals and the new breed of celebrity author have led to a surge of interest in a potential career in writing. Universities across the country are cashing in on the glamorous new image, with 85 offering postgraduate creative writing courses, compared with fewer than 10 a decade ago. Statistics from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) show that a third of institutions now run an undergraduate creative writing course, or offer it as an option with disciplines as wide-ranging as theology and human biosciences.

As competition to attract quality applicants grows, leading figures in the literary world are being enticed to head departments. Brunel University, in Middlesex, is the latest to capitalise on the trend and has just appointed the veteran novelist Fay Weldon, 74, to be the chairman of its new creative writing MA. She told The Sunday Telegraph: "It is a growing industry. I don't think it is about being a name, what is important is having practical experience. "It is in the initial stages, when people have an idea but they don't quite know how to start, that you can help, making sure that they don't set out on a path that will be intolerably difficult." Weldon said that the potential of big financial rewards had generated interest in creative writing courses. "You do have to have some talent, but it is also possible to teach a craft," she added.

Britain's most celebrated creative writing course, at the University of East Anglia, was established in 1965 by the late Sir Malcolm Bradbury, the author of The History Man. He was succeeded by Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate, who now heads the creative writing course at Royal Holloway, University of London. Now the novelists Michèle Roberts and Patricia Duncker run the UEA course, which has more than 400 applicants for 45 places.

The MA at Sheffield Hallam University is also oversubscribed. Run by Jane Rogers, the author of Mr Wroe's Virgins, it has on its staff Barry Hines, whose A Kestrel for a Knave was made into the film Kes. Oxford University launched its creative writing masters last year, which is run by Clare Morgan, a prize-winning novelist, short story writer and poet.

Such courses have produced high-profile success stories, including Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, Tracy Chevalier and Ali Smith, but not all graduates achieve such literary success. According to Russell Celyn Jones, a professor of creative writing at Birkbeck College, London, only one in five graduates goes on to be published. But even those who succeed can expect to earn as little as £15,000 per book, according to the Society of Authors.