Students are running up substantial debts but earning less than they expect on graduating, research indicates. The authors of a report say that government ambitions to push half of all school-leavers into higher education could be to blame for the mismatch between expectations and reality. On average, students misjudge their starting salaries by more than £2,000, according to the research led by John Jerrim, a PhD student at Southampton University's department of social statistics.