The student experience: funding. . .

The director of the London School of Economics (THES, Jan 6) wrote to advocate (again) differential or top-up fees for students. What has not been made clear is how such schemes (as distinct from graduate taxes) would distinguish between the different income groups without injustice. Lord Chilver, chairman of the University Grants Committee in 1989, believed all students should pay the full cost of their education and that for the "very small proportion" who genuinely were not able to afford this the state should provide what he called "charity". I do not suppose the LSE director would choose those words. But what does he have in mind?

J. A. G. GRIFFITH

2 The Close, Spinfield Lane, Marlow, Bucks