Universities are failing to equip their students with a basic sense of morality, Steven Schwartz, the vice-chancellor of Brunel, said yesterday.

"Plagiarism, incivility, rudeness and reneging on legitimate debts - all of these are depressingly common among university students," he added.
"How can we begin to expect them to analyse ethical issues such as stem cell research or nanotechnology or euthanasia or gay marriage when we cannot even get them to understand that they should be polite to others and that they should meet their obligations?"