Despite being carefully hand-picked by the University of Cambridge, the theology students who met higher education minister Margaret Hodge this week were not pulling any punches.
After the minister said that she would stick to the principle that those who benefit from a university education should also contribute to it, student Angela Rayner responded: "The issue is not that simple. There's too many people that the system lets slip."
The intervention will be some comfort to the student union, which was somehow overlooked when the invitations to meet the minister were issued. A peeved Pav Akhtar, president of the union, said: "They said the students were all in lectures but we are on sabbaticals. We were quite annoyed."