Students 'need morality lessons'

Universities are criticised today for failing to teach students ethics.

Steven Schwartz, the vice-chancellor of Brunel, said many were not equipping students with a basic sense of morality.

"Plagiarism, incivility, rudeness and reneging on legitimate debts - all of these are depressingly common among students,"-said Professor Schwartz, who is head of the Government's working party on university admissions. He said: "How can we expect them to analyse ethical issues such as stem cell research, nanotechnology, euthanasia or gay marriage when we cannot get them to understand that they should be polite to others and they should meet their obligations?"

He said it has become impossible for universities to provide the moral education of earlier centuries. "I believe it is time for universities once again to articulate a moral vision of what they are trying to achieve."