Image copyright University of Texas Image caption The Hollywood star picked up delighted students on Monday night in a golf buggy

Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey has surprised students at the University of Texas at Austin by taking part in a scheme to provide them with safe late-night lifts home.

On Monday the Austin resident used a golf buggy to pick some of them up.

The Sure Walk project has been set up to ensure students get back safely from campus when it is dark.

McConaughey, 47, graduated from the university in 1993. He is an avid fan of its American football team.

A photograph of him dressed in an orange shirt driving smiling and startled students home was posted by the university on social media.

Matthew McConaughey: From rom-com star to Oscar winner

"Longhorns take care of each other, and it's 'safe' to say Matthew McConaughey agrees," a post on the university's Facebook page says.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Matthew McConaughey is a keen supporter of the University of Texas and is often seen at the campus

Image copyright Reuters Image caption McConaughey is one of Hollywood's biggest stars and has won an Oscar and a Golden Globe

"Don't forget to use Sure Walk when travelling home late at night; you never know who might pick you up!"

Sure Walk - or Students United for Rape Elimination - provides students of the University of Texas at Austin with "volunteer companionship while walking home from campus".

It expanded its services earlier this month from 7pm to 2am every day of the week, the university's news magazine said.

It provides students with "peace-of-mind when studying late at night and ensure[s] safety for all".

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Born in the small city of Uvalde, Texas, McConaughey eschewed a role in the family oil pipe business to study radio, TV and film at the University of Texas.

Although he is perhaps best known for his leading roles in rom-coms such as Failure to Launch and The Wedding Planner, he won an Oscar for Best Actor in the 2013 film Dallas Buyers Club.

In one of his latest films, The Sea of Trees, he stars as a suicidal man who travels to Japan to take his own life.

Yet McConaughey has acknowledged that it is the rom-coms that have provided him with his "bread and butter", telling the Daily Telegraph in a recent interview that has no qualms about being associated with the genre.