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The government justifies loans on the grounds that students, over their lives, are likely to earn more than enough to repay it.

As the proportion of young people entering higher education nears 50 per cent, it will be less true. Future graduates will earn closer to the median of the working population. The government is making the same mistake as miners' leader Arthur Scargill when he suggested that everyone should have a salary greater than the average.

Phil Dyke
Department of mathematics and statistics
University of Plymouth