Universities will cram in more foreigners if MPs reject top-up fees

Leaders of the élite Russell Group of universities have warned they will have to cram places with overseas students - who will pay fees of about £11,000 a year - if legislation over top-up fees is defeated in the House of Commons this week.

The London School of Economics takes in only 38 per cent of its students from the UK. It was predicted yesterday that many other leading universities, which are currently turning away thousands of foreign students, would follow in its footsteps.

Universities say they will need the extra money to ensure teaching quality, and that if there is not enough left over to expand student numbers, UK youngsters could miss out on the chance of going to a top university.

Members of the Russell Group - which represents the country's top 19 research-led institutions- are also gearing up for a battle with ministers to increase the £3,000-a-year maximum top-up fee if the Government gets its legislation through Parliament. They have warned that academic standards in the UK would slide if the Government stuck rigidly to its present figure.

Charles Clarke, the Secretary of State for Education, is attempting to soothe rebel Labour MPs by insisting that any future move to increase top-up fees will be subject to a vote by Parliament.

However, the Russell Group is sticking by its assertions that universities would have been better served by a maximum £5,000 fee to start with. But its vice-chancellors acknowledge that Tony Blair's political problems with his backbenchers meant that would be impossible in the short term. Professor Michael Sterling, vice-chancellor of Birmingham University and chairman of the Russell Group, yesterday welcomed the Government's top-up fee package, but said it did not go "far enough".

"If we want to offer high-quality standards to compete with the rest of the world, we will have to raise the figure," he said. "A £3,000 top-up figure is not enough to bridge the funding gap that we have."