Using controllers as inputs

[eluser]obiron2[/eluser]
Not really answering your question, more asking why you want to do it in the first place

Why don't you want to use a controller name in the URL

e.g. www.domain.com/student/richard


Whatever you do you will still need to have a controller and parse the student name as a parameter

Your site will simply be a list of pages for students as you will not be able to identify the difference between , say, a student and an event

What would you want the URL to look like for

www.domain/index.php/events/prom-night

you could also try using 301 redirects in the .htaccess file but I think you will still struggle to distinguish between student profiles and other parts of the website