The high price of learning

This change reflects the fact that while living standards have gone up over the last 30 years, the cost of higher education has soared. Earlier generations did not have much to worry them beyond their studies and the quality of the local nightlife but today students must consider how to pay for fees, where to find part-time work and the necessity of finding a permanent job at the end of it all.

The recent dwindling of part-time jobs, triggered by the recession, is a major cause for concern. These positions have traditionally helped many hard-up students to struggle on until they returned home at the end of term, as well as teaching them about responsibility and providing some experience of the workplace.

The lack of such jobs risks storing up problems for Britain in future. Not only does it add to student debts, in a country where the burden of personal debt is already high, it drags back the country's return to economic prosperity and means young people are slower to develop the skills they need for the rest of their life.

All this means there is more pressure on Lord Browne, the former BP chief executive, to come up with a credible set of ideas when his review into student finance is published in the autumn. More and more people will be put off going to university if fees continue to rise at the same time as opportunities for work fall and this explains why proposals for a graduate tax have become popular.

In the meantime, some reduction in student numbers is, perhaps, inevitable, after the growth of less academically rigorous courses during Labour's time in office. These only make up a small proportion of people attending university, however, and the next generation of scientists, engineers, doctors and teachers still needs to be trained.

Britain's economic future depends on finding a way to pay for education today.