Alex: Angry at the turn of events

But, owing so much already, he feared how bad things would become after another two years' study.

"I pay for everything myself - I pay for my rent, my tuition fees - so I have struggled to pay everything and have had to work to do it," he said.

He said he his course administrator had been very supportive throughout, advising him to stick with it. But he felt the university authorities had been unnecessarily harsh.

One of the letters said his debt would be handed over to a "collection company", which made him panic: He thought that might result in bailiffs being sent round.

"They treated me as a thing rather than a person," he said.

'No choice'

The president of Coventry student union, Gareth Wilde, said there had been 627 expulsions from the university this year - with 2,044 threatened originally.

A spokeswoman for the university said it was owed a considerable sum, which was operational money. Without it, the university would be unable to offer all its services.

Ignoring debt would also be unfair to those who did pay.

But the university was stuck with a funding system imposed from above and wanted the government to address the issue.

Academic factors

The government however does not consider it to be a major problem. It stresses that - from next year - half of all students will not have to pay the means-tested tuition fees.

The Commons education select committee has called for more research on the impact of fees and the move from grants to loans.

In evidence to the committee, the Higher Education Funding Council for England said debt "might be a second order issue" but drop-out could be explained largely by academic factors: A-level grades were a good indication of who was likely to stay the course in higher education.

On that basis, Alex Keogh might not have been expected to do well. He sees it differently.

"The system has gone back to where only people that can afford to go to university can go to university," he said.