Patrick Callan of the National Centre for Public Policy and Higher Education points out that state universities experience extremes of the economic cycle pampered in good times, spurned when budgets turn red.

ECONOMIST: State universities

Equipped with that new knowledge, he gathers new experience on the job, and the cycle continues.

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Tony Dann, a former cycle courier with 14 years' experience riding in London, "can't really see the point".

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