Cash to be set aside for poorer students

Universities will be forced to set aside up to 10 per cent of their income from top-up fees to fund efforts to attract more working-class students, it emerged today.

Top universities such as Oxford and Cambridge will also be "expected" to offer more than the minimum £300 bursary promised by ministers last month to the poorest students, said Education Secretary Charles Clarke.

The proposed fees watchdog, the Office for Fair Access (OFFA), can impose fines of up to £500,000 for serious breaches of the "access agreements" universities will have to sign before being allowed to charge higher fees.