Don't ban unpaid internships – let interns work from home instead

An unpaid six month internship costs graduates at least £5,000, according to a study by The Sutton Trust. The social mobility charity has analysed interns’ expenditure on rent, food, transport and other bills while working for free, and found that the average half-year placement in London costs over £6,000. The figure for Manchester was only marginally less ruinous, at slightly over £5,000.

While seven out of ten Britons now believe that unpaid internships are unfair because they make top graduate jobs the preserve of the rich, one third of interns don’t receive a wage. My year at Oxford are approaching our penultimate summer as undergraduates, and internships are the hot topic. Financial considerations are key: McKinsey and Co. is the most sought-after summer destination among my friends, in part because they pay their interns enough to live in London for the duration of the placement.