Unlimited fees 'will put off poorer students'

12 April 2012

Teenagers from the poorest families will be deterred from applying to university if tuition fees soar to "mortgage" levels, a government inquiry was warned today.

Leading universities have demanded the power to charge unlimited fees in order to maintain their world-class reputation for teaching and research.

But Professor Anna Vignoles warned that such a move would undermine efforts to widen access to degree courses for working class students.

Her remarks came in evidence to the independent review of fees chaired by former BP boss Lord Browne.

The Russell Group, which includes Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial and UCL, told Lord Browne this week that universities should ultimately be free to set their own fees.

Professor Vignoles, deputy director of the Centre for Economics of Education at the London School of Economics, said: "If you raise tuition fees there will come a point at which students see the fees and are put off."

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