I am sorry for any student who has to face the trauma of failing at university. But the Government must shoulder much of the blame for the way it has consistently encouraged teenagers to believe they have a right to a university education. Dropout rates are the worst at the new universities: the former polytechnics where the Government's open-access policy has been at its most pronounced. At Bolton University, London Metropolitan, Thames Valley University and others, more than 40 per cent of students fail to finish their degrees. More than £800 million has been spent attempting to stop students like these from "dropping out".