MEGAN Lewis, a Year 10 pupil at Matthew Arnold School, lays bare the shallowness of Keith Mitchell’s argument in favour of university tuition fees (BIG ISSUE, April 2).

It is glib of Mr Mitchell when he says pre-fees university education was “a taxpayer-funded right (sic) of passage to be enjoyed without pressure”. Since 1945, expansion in higher education in the UK has been a dynamo for economic growth, employment, and innovation.

Mr Mitchell’s “customer culture” is little more than shoddy commodification and monetization which is doing untold damage to UK higher education at a time when other European countries, notably those without fees, are, even in recession, building upon and promoting research and developent.

As it happens, Oxfordshire is a significant hub for new technology, with some 1,500 firms working closely with Oxford’s universities to be world-leaders. In the humanities, British universities used to attract the brightest and the best, but this year and last, undergraduate applications have have dropped by about 11 per cent and graduate applications by nearly 30 per cent.

Fine, Mr Mitchell, let what you call “dodgier universities” go to the wall and then explain to local economies what this means in practice – rising unemployment and declines in investment. Internationally, UK higher education is already struggling to compete.

As for fees acting as an incentive to make students work harder, students have always worked hard for their qualifications. Shame on you, Mr Mitchell, for being so chronically ill-informed.

BRUCE ROSS-SMITH

Bowness Avenue

Headington