Open your doors more widely, universities told

Young people from poor backgrounds could be excluded from higher education if the Government fails to balance plans to introduce tuition fees with steps to widen access to university, a Labour MP has claimed.

Last month's report by the Dearing committee of inquiry recommended introducing tuition fees of around pounds 1,000 for each year of a degree course for all full-time students, to be repaid after graduation. However, the committee recommended that means-tested grants for living costs should stay to help the poorer students.

Sir Ron Dearing moved to counter concerns from some MPs that government plans for fees would automatically deter poorer school-leavers from applying to university.

There had been no evidence of such a trend in Australia or New Zealand, which already levy tuition fees for higher education, Sir Ron said. The Government, announcing its response to the report last week, proposed a different system, under which all maintenance grants will be replaced by long-term loans, and means-tested tuition fees will be introduced.

Gerry Steinberg, Labour MP for the City of Durham, told Sir Ron that he believed poorer groups would be no better off under his proposal and would probably be worse off under the government's suggestions. "To get rid of grants, it seems to me, it's just going to deter youngsters, particularly from working class backgrounds, from coming into contact with higher education," he said.

n Further education colleges are in financial crisis, reporting a deficit of pounds 90m, a new survey showed yesterday.

An analysis of 347 colleges in England showed that two out of three had an operating deficit in the 1995/6 financial year and more than 1,000 teaching jobs were axed.

But despite the financial struggles, the pay of college principals has risen, with 16 per cent now earning more than pounds 85,000 a year, the report by the Labour Research Department showed.

Some colleges have "very substantial" deficits, amounting to more than 10 per cent of total income in 24 cases, Labour Research, an independent union and labour movement organisation, found.

At Stanmore College in London, the deficit was almost 20 per cent of income, while at Ryecotewood College in Oxfordshire it reached 22 per cent.

The result of the financial crisis has been a cut in teaching staff, averaging 3 per cent in larger colleges, rising to 20 per cent in 14 cases.

The colleges, where three million young people and adults are taught every year, face a funding squeeze which stretches "unbroken" into the future, said the report. Many are cutting staff again this year.