If it is right that only graduates should pay for higher education, what about those of us who graduated in the days before loans - including me, and (I suspect) Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg? Surely we should all be paying something?

Granted - no pun intended - it would be extremely difficult to sort out the exact amount owing, so a graduate tax would seem the fairest option. After all, even people on zero grants got their fees paid - worth a great deal in today’s money. And to make it even fairer (because, clearly, “fairness” is the new government’s mantra) let’s have a sliding scale. Those who have benefited most from their degrees of privilege should pay the most. But, oh dear, this is starting to sound dangerously like socialism ...

Libby Hudson, Hereford.