The traditional undergraduate experience of huddling for warmth around a one-bar heater and eating baked beans from the tin is being threatened by a new breed of student.

University vice-chancellors are having to adjust to undergraduates who believe that their £3,000 annual fees entitle them to a respectable standard of living.

Rather than tolerating overcrowded houses where comfort is regarded as having a bean bag in the sitting room, students are demanding en suite bedrooms, direct access to the latest technology, and even cleaning staff.

Brian Lang, Vice-Chancellor of St Andrews University, told university leaders at Princeton University in New Jersey that students even expected their essays to be marked legibly and on time. “We are becoming a service society, and students increasingly think they are buying a service – for which they want a return,” he said.

“We’re on a ratchet with expectations and it’s very difficult to manage expectations downwards. We have to manage student expectations. The most old-fashioned way of doing that is to say, ‘if you don’t like what we’re offering, go elsewhere’.”

Dr Lang was one of the speakers at the Future Campus conference at Princeton’s school of architecture, which was addressed by senior staff from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and New York. Afterwards he said: “Students are more demanding. Not only do they expect a single room, it has to be en suite, have a TV in it and be cleaned for them.

“This spreads into the learning experience – they expect essays to be marked clearly and back within a certain number of days, and to see their tutor regularly. They want a fit-for-purpose library with all the books they need, when they need them – especially when they’re paying substantially for it. It’s part of an increasing cultural awareness of service.”

Dr Lang said that the shift in standards was probably a positive development, and that it was prevalent at his university despite education still being free in Scotland.

Similar attitudes noted at English universities have been blamed on the introduction of top-up fees in 2006. Students now pay £3,000 a year towards their tuition and they – and their parents – expect to receive value for money.

The phenomenon has also developed in the United States, where many universities charge tens of thousands of dollars each year.

Yet Hilary Ballon, associate vice-chancellor of New York University Abu Dhabi, told the conference: “What’s wrong with saying that there should be behaviour modification – that students should share rooms and shouldn’t expect a single bathroom? They are getting this amazing experience and living with other really smart people, with whom they can think and discuss issues.”

Evidence has emerged of students withholding fees or even threatening to sue universities if their expectations are not met. A Freedom of Information survey conducted this summer found that £100,000 was repaid by universities to dissatisfied students.

Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, said that the introduction of fees had encouraged students to expect more from higher education. He said: “Students now pay more than ever towards the costs of higher education and inevitably expect more as a result. As a consequence of top-up fees, students are encouraged to adopt a worrying consumer mentality.

“This would only be exacerbated if the cap on fees is lifted, forcing them to become shoppers in a higher education supermarket. Those who are vociferously lobbying for an increase in the cap in fees should be careful what they wish for.”

Bahram Bekhradnia, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said: “It’s probably the case that students are becoming more vocal, particularly about contact hours, availability of staff and who is doing the teaching. Anecdotally, we hear that parents are becoming more involved, and they want to see their children getting value for money.”

New student accommodation reflects the demands. “Platinum suites” at one block of student flats in Leeds include en suite bedrooms, broadband access, double beds, a dishwasher, an LCD television and a cleaner once a month.

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