Thousands of students could be forced to give up their studies after the Open University's (OU) decision to pull a scheme that offers existing undergraduates free education using Tesco vouchers.
A record number of people were declared insolvent in England and Wales during 2009 and the figure looks set to continue climbing this year, data shows today.
"Brand new customers only" was once the comical slogan used to mock banks and building societies that hiked existing customer charges while lowering those for newbies.