Ron Dearing's report is published next week

Students' Tuition Fees Blow

The long-awaited report by Sir Ron Dearing into higher education funding is due to be published next week, with the universities predicting a £3 billion shortfall by the year 2000 unless radical change is implemented. At the moment, undergraduates who take out loans to cover their living expenses make repayments after leaving university, but their fees are paid by the state.

The Dearing report is expected to recommend that students repay about £1,000 for each year at college - out of the average annual cost of £4-£5,000. The money could be repaid over a lengthy period, but higher earners could pay their debt off more quickly. One possible mechanism for this is through higher national insurance contributions.

But the proposal has prompted an angry reaction from the National Union of Students who've described it as a step too far. It said it would remain "fiercely opposed" to students paying towards their tuition costs, whatever means were taken to make such a "graduate tax" more palatable.

The N.U.S President, Douglas Trainer, said he thought universities could save money by becoming more efficient rather than introducing fees. He added that access to higher education would be reduced and poorer students would suffer as a result.

The Government knows that such a move would provoke a huge political row but it may soften the blow by introducing scholarships for the less well off and tighter means-testing of the existing loans system. Downing Street said it would announce next week which parts of the Dearing report it would take and which parts it would refine.

The Shadow Education and Employment Secretary, Stephen Dorrell, said that the Government should study Sir Ron's conclusions in detail before deciding how to tackle the problem.

The Liberal Democrat Education Spokesman, Don Foster, said: "The additional money urgently needed for higher education should come from a funding partnership of more money from students, through the conversion of maintenance grants into loans, more money from employers, and more money from the state."