Weak universities 'can go to the wall'

Weaker universities which cannot attract enough students should be allowed to go to the wall, a university chief said today.

Professor Steven Schwartz, a government adviser and vice chancellor of Brunel University, called for the abolition of a "quota" system which guarantees all universities enough students but stops the strongest from expanding.

Professor Schwartz said the Government was already introducing the market principle into higher education by proposing to allow universities to charge variable tuition fees. But it should go much further. He also called for the introduction of vouchers - or state scholarships - into higher education to give students a better deal.

He was speaking only weeks before delivering the next report of a working group set up by the Government on how to widen university access.

It could recommend that students from the inner cities with poorer exam results should be given more university places if they can demonstrate academic "potential".

Professor Schwartz told a London seminar organised by the Civitas think tank that universities were paying the price for losing their independence over the past 50 years and relying on state funding.

Higher education could never compete with health for taxpayers' money and the result was universities with decaying buildings, obsolete equipment and demoralised staff.