Fine art scholar Jarvis: tuition fees would have killed off Pulp

Jarvis Cocker said that if higher university tuition fees had been around in the Eighties, he would not have gone to college or found success with his band Pulp.

The 47-year-old singer credits his arts degree for "teaching him how to use his mind" and believes plans to allow universities to charge up to £9,000 per year will devastate the arts.

Cocker, who studied fine art at Central St Martins from 1988 to 1991 while Pulp were still struggling, said: "There has to be some attempt to find some sort of special pleading for arts education. You can't say that somebody is going to get a highly paid job at the end of it."

He received an honorary fellowship from University of the Arts London at the Royal Festival Hall yesterday.