When he handed it in, he claims he was told it would be no more than three months before he was called for a viva examination, where he would be questioned orally on the work by an external examiner. But it took 13 months for him to be summoned for his viva.”After three months I rang my supervisor,” says Sweeney. Experts believe it is no coincidence that postgraduates who have to contribute towards the cost of their degrees are complaining louder than ever.Liam Sweeney, 28, is one of this army of paying customers with a grievance. After stumping up several thousand pounds in tuition fees for an MPhil at the University of Wales, Cardiff, and having completed a thesis with which his supervisor was satisfied, he finds himself still without his degree 18 months later.His thesis – on civil service reform 1968-90 – was submitted in the early autumn of 1995. They won’t be able to pay different amounts to reflect differing quality – as they do in the US.Professor David Robertson, of Liverpool John Moores University, is also sympathetic to that view.

But fees will make parents much more discriminating, he says. “As a parent, am I going to want to pay pounds 1,000 for my child to do an HND at Balls Pond Road tech when it costs the same for him or her to study for a degree at Oxford?”CASE HISTORYEighteen months, and still angrily waiting for his degreeIncreasing numbers of postgraduates are complaining about their courses – their content, marking or supervision. “Some students are going to say, `You should be building on where I am now, not repeating what I did at school,’” he says. “Quite often universities spend a couple of terms trying to bring all their students to the same point.”The Open University provides an example of how things could go OU students have always had to pay fees. If they don’t have their work returned on time, or find their tutors’ comments unhelpful, they can complain to a higher level. “The university soon got to know which tutors were looking after the students and which weren’t,” adds Professor Smithers.Other academics think pounds 1,000 a year in tuition fees is not enough to have much effect on placid British students. For example, Alan Ryan, warden of New College, Oxford, believes the Government’s plan will not affect student behaviour, because it doesn’t give them much new clout.

Inevitably that will mean students looking more carefully at what they’re getting out of their courses personally, and whether their degree will lead to a job, says Professor Smithers.On some courses and at some universities, he maintains, first-year students are marking time while others in their classes who are not so well prepared are brought up to scratch. That means it will cost them a total of pounds 16,500 to acquire a three-year degree. It has become a bit of a conveyor belt, and charging fees is going to be a reality test.”If the National Union of Students is right in saying that it costs pounds 4,500 a year for board and lodging, students will have to find pounds 13,500 altogether to pay for their living costs. On top of that, from 1998 the better-off will have to pay pounds 1,000 a year in fees. “The expectation has grown up that you move from the sixth form to university, you go to a course you fancy, and even if it doesn’t turn out to be what you want, it’s good to get away from Mum and Dad for three years.

When they have to pay, they will think long and hard about what they want to do in higher education, and what it will lead to afterwards.”That point is echoed by Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Brunel University, who says paying for tuition will bring a healthy dose of reality to student thinking about higher education. Although undergraduates in America are lively and engaged, the reality is that they do put up with some mediocre teaching, he points out. But, he thinks, paying fees is likely to make students more discriminating about their choice of university and their choice of subject.”It has become too easy for young people who don’t know what they want to do for the rest of their lives to use higher education as a parking place while they sort themselves out at the public’s expense. “Some academics need reminding of that.”Harry Judge, former director of Oxford’s department of educational studies, says students are unlikely to become more aggressive. “A paying clientele helps to remind us that our core business is the transmission of learning,” says Professor Hennessy. I am sure, if you’re handing pounds 1,000 in tuition fees to a university, it’s a natural response to be more demanding.”It is possible – because they know how cash-strapped British universities are – that students will be less fussy about facilities than about the teaching they receive.