Muse have donated £15,000 of their equipment to Plymouth University.

The ‘Knights of Cydonia’ rockers – who have recently started work on their sixth album in London – have given a host of state-of-the-art music equipment to undergraduate musicians at the higher education college in the South West of England, near to Teignmouth, Devon, where they hail from.

A spokesman for the band – who were awarded honorary doctorates from the university in 2008 – said: “We’re delighted to provide this equipment and hope it will inspire students to go on and create great music for years to come.”

Professor David Coslett, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, added: “This is a wonderfully generous gesture from Muse and will provide exciting opportunities for our students to experience the kind of industry-standard equipment very few universities have access to.

“We are proud to be associated with the band, given their significant contribution to contemporary popular music and their links to the South West and the university.”

The donated equipment will include a modular analogue synthesiser, two liquid channel pre-amps, and a set of specialist orchestral and instrumental microphones and the group have also stipulated that a portion of the donation should fund student prizes, rewarding innovation on their course over the next three years.