A former paratrooper who went from hating science at school to becoming a lecturer in quantum chemical dynamics says he would not have gone to university if top-up fees were in place.

Keith Hughes, 35, who has returned to Bangor University to take up a lectureship and a Ramsay memorial research fellowship after working as a postdoctoral researcher in the US, said top-up fees would have stopped his academic career from ever getting off the ground.

He said: "If fees were in place, I would have ended up working on a building site or stacking shelves in a supermarket rather than becoming an academic.

"I would have been too worried about the hidden costs of going to university, even if I had been told I would not have to pay the full fee or I would get a bursary. I think it's so unfair on young people to heap this much debt on them."

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Dr Hughes left school at 16 with three O levels and immediately joined the army. After four years as a paratrooper, he decided to go back into education.

An access course at Coleg Menai led to him taking a chemistry degree at Bangor, where he won departmental and university prizes. He did his PhD in quantum mechanics and gained a post-doctoral post at the University of Texas in Austin, where he worked alongside leading quantum dynamics theorist Robert Wyatt.

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Dr Hughes said he was lured back to Bangor by its reputation for high-quality teaching in chemistry and the prospect of using its new virtual reality equipment that will help scientists visualise what goes on at quantum level.