Long hours, sponsored courses, and interactive tutorials by robot

Sally leaned back in her chair and stretched herself, yawning. God, this lesson was boring ... As the voice droned on, she looked around her. The old lecture theatre was hot and packed, and several people were standing at the side of the room, unable to get seats.

To Sally's left a woman in her fifties was scratching away intensely with pen and paper, making notes. To her right a younger man with holes in his jumper was fast asleep. She stared idly at him for a moment, playing a mental game she had taken up recently: student or vagrant? Security was tight at the University of Millhampton but the homeless population were determined in their efforts to find a warm spot, and, frankly, it was almost impossible to tell the difference. The electronic guard machine which was meant to check visitors' faces against the university's computerised records was as confused as she was, it seemed.

Sally looked at her watch. It was 1.05am. "That's it. I'm off," she said loudly. None of the other students looked round - their headphones prevented them from hearing her. But for once her computer understood. It replied in the same robotic, Americanised monotone in which it had just been delivering her final-year module on the manufacture of deodorised insoles for sports shoes.

"Well, Sally, thank you so much for meeting with me today. I do hope the instruction has been useful to you. Have a safe journey home and a good night's sleep," it said.

Sally gave the standard reply. "Bugger off," she said, with some feeling.

A small crowd scuttled towards her seat as she headed for the door, elbowing one another in their attempts to get there first. In the scrum, someone knocked a small piece of plaster out of the crumbling wall and it landed with a crackle on a keyboard. The university had been forced to convert its lecture rooms into computer banks on a shoestring and there was almost no money for maintenance.

As she made her way along busy, brightly lit corridors towards the exit, Sally wondered what life at Millhampton would have been like in the old days, when students had full grants and lived on campus. Her days and nights were so full that she scarcely had time to sleep.

Take today, for example. She had been up at 7am and out of the house half an hour later in time to walk the two miles to the MicroSportz leisurewear factory, where she started work at eight. MicroSportz was Sally's course sponsor, and she hoped to get a job there designing sportswear when she finished - most degrees nowadays were backed by employers. But the job was a menial one and paid very little. If she had not been living with her parents she would not have been able to manage, even with her student loans, her overdraft and the government scholarship she received for taking a vocational course with a manufacturing component. There were no grants any more, of course.

After finishing work at 2pm, Sallywolfed down lunch before setting off in her mother's car for her weekly seminar at the Millhampton University campus, 50 miles away. This was her only contact with a real, live tutor, and she looked forward to it immensely. Today she and her group of five fellow-students had been doing "coaching studies", which was one of her favourite subjects.

That, at least, was one thing which had improved since the "good old days". In the 1990s, some seminar groups at Millhampton had had up to 30 students in them. Now that most teaching was done through interactive computers, a smaller number of lecturers were able to spend "quality" time with smaller groups.

After her seminar, which finished at 6pm, Sally had wondered whether to work in the university library, but had abandoned the idea when she saw the electronic sign by the door. It was flashing: "Waiting time: two hours." Even now they had finished transferring the books on to CD-Rom and had filled the spare space with extra terminals, there were still huge queues. She had decided to drive back to the Northern Campus, her "home base," and work there for the evening.

The Northern Campus, a couple of miles from her parents' home at Bagley, offered everything from School Leaving Certificate courses to degree modules and was a fully integrated part of the University of Millhampton. Sally did most of her work there, communicating with her tutors by e-mail. It wasn't a bad arrangement. So far she had completed 32 of the 36 modules which made up her degree, and like about 50 per cent of her fellow-students she was on course for a First. Ever since the early 1990s the grades had been going up, and without a First there was little chance of employment these days.

The main drawback, apart from the long hours, was the lack of social life. Sally had got to know the other people in her seminar group quite well, but none of them lived in Millhampton. Two were married with children, and one lived 100 miles away. Occasionally they arranged a night out and stayed over on campus, but that was expensive. Very few people "lived in" at the university any more.

Like many of her friends, Sally had dreamed of going to a Superleague university. Not Oxford or Cambridge, of course, that would have been far too expensive - they were only for the very rich or the incredibly clever. So she had set her sights on Nottingham and Warwick, where the fees were only 2,000 ecus. Her parents had promised to help, and she had worked tremendously hard. That would have been the life. Just imagine - three whole years living away from home! And she could have studied a pure academic subject such as English or history. Most people had to do vocational courses nowadays, but graduates from the elite Superleague still creamed off all the best jobs.

Sally had had to abandon her plans when her A-level results came out. Despite all her efforts she had only got double-starred A grades and she needed triple stars to have any hope of a scholarship.

The thought of football brought Sally back to earth. If she went straight home there would still be time to watch the big game on the video before grabbing a couple of hours' sleep.

Football was the one leisure activity for which she still made time. Since Sky TV had set up its Varsity Sports channel, the university positively encouraged it. There were the sponsorship deals to consider, after all. She had even applied for one of the government sports scholarships brought in after the great Olympic disaster of 1996, but most of those still went to men.

The thought of an enjoyable hour in front of the video with the football warmed Sally as she made her way out into the rain-washed car park. The Varsity semi-finals - the Millhampton Mincers versus the Oxford Brookes Bouncers. She could allow herself that small indulgence at the end of a long day. After all, she had scored the winning goal.