Yesterday Cherie Blair paid a much anticipated visit to the University of East Anglia where students were hoping that they could bring to her attention the student loan crisis which is leaving many students with unmanageable debt.

But to the disappointment of the students and university officials, Cherie Blair refused to look at their ‘wall of debt’, a artistic creation where students had been invited to add tags to the wall detailing how much debt they would be in upon graduation.

Mrs Blair’s personal assistant told university officials that Cherie Blair would not have time to look at the wall and add her own children’s debt to it as she had a very tight schedule and could not possibly fit this 5 minute exercise in. The students at UEA were left disappointed that their campaign against unfair student loans would be overlooked by such an influential figure who was paying a visit to their university.

David Sheppard, the union's academic officer, said: "Some UEA students graduate with as much as £70,000-worth of debt and most are looking at a minimum of £20,000. He added that the system is incredibly unfair as “some[students], however, are going to graduate with no debt at all - because their parents have paid it off or they have navigated the confusing and difficult system of bursaries.

"The wall of debt starkly illustrates that students are broke and the system is broken. Only when the government changes the current unfair system will every person have the opportunity to participate in higher education - something that is just good for society as a whole."

Union spokeswoman Rowena Boddington said: "While Mrs Blair was not elected herself, she is someone who has been involved in the Labour party for a long time. As a barrister she has focused a lot on equality issues and has a proven track record on issues of social justice.”

“Our hope was that she would be interested in the barriers that students face to enter higher education and that she would agree that the current system is grossly unfair and unsustainable."

Sean Rose, 20, a development studies student in his third year at UEA, says that when he graduates, he will owe £24,000 in student loans and £1,500 to his bank.

"It's a bit depressing. A lot of people on my course end up working in the charity sector and it's going to be a struggle to pay off the interest, let alone the loan," he said.

"The interest alone will be pushing £1,000 a year for me. To earn enough to pay that back I will have to earn about £25,000 a year, but starting salaries in the sector are about £14,000-15,000."

Simon Wright, Liberal Democrat parliamentary spokesman for Norwich South, was at UEA last week, talking to new students about their financial concerns and unlike Cherie Blair, paying a real interest in the financial struggles which graduates and students today will face.

"More and more young people are now failing to save for pensions, and student debt is one of the main reasons for this. Getting on the housing ladder is nothing more than a dream for most graduates, many of whom are paying nearly half of their income in tax," he said.