Harper Adams University College is a top performer

We hear a lot about how costly it is to send a child to university in this era of student loans, but far less about the quality of service these establishments actually provide.

So today, let us pay tribute to Harper Adams University College near Newport, the training ground for tomorrow's generation of farmers which features near the top of a national "customer satisfaction" survey.

An impressive 91 per cent of students declare themselves completely satisfied with its quality of teaching and academic support – comfortably ahead of the national average.

It just goes to show that Shropshire, one of the few counties in Britain without a mainstream university headquarters, is more than capable of providing top-quality further education.

Unless they seek a career in agriculture, young people currently have no choice but to look outside the county for degree courses.

And when they move away, all too often they end up not coming back.

The brain drain from Shropshire has to stop.